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Book iS-3fi,5_- 



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MALAY SKETCHES 







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73233 






CONTENTS 



PAGE 

ix 



INTRODUCTION 

I. THE REAL MALAY ' 

n. THE TIGER I* 

III. A FISHING PICNIC ^9 

IV. THE MURDER OF THE HAWKER . . . - 2$ 
V. MBNG-GfiLUNCHOR 3' 

VI. iMOK 3^ 

vn. THE j6get 44 

VIII. THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 53 

IX. LlTAH ^4 

X. THE ETERNAL FEMININE 83 

XI. IN THE NOON OF NIGHT ....•• 9^ 

XII. VAN HAGEN AND CAVALIERO 103 

XIII. THE PASSING OF PSNGLIMA PRANG SfiMAUN . .112 

XIV. BfiR-HANTU ^47 

XV. THE KING'S WAY l6l 

XVI. A MALAY ROMANCE 179 

XVII. MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 192 

XVIII. WITH A CASTING-NET 2H 

XIX. JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH . . . .227 

XX. A PERSONAL INCIDENT 248 

XXI. NAKODAH ORLONG 27O 

XXII. EVENING 2^' 



PREFACE 

nPHIS is not a book of travels, nor is it, in even 
-*- the smallest sense, the record of a traveller's 
experiences in a foreign land. It is a series of 
sketches of Malay scenery and Malay character 
drawn by one who has spent the best part of 
his life in the scenes and amongst the people 
described. 

These pages contain no statistics, no history, no 
geography, no science, real or spurious, no politics, 
no moralising, no prophecy, — only an attempt to 
awaken an interest in an almost undescribed but 
deeply interesting people, the dwellers in one of 
the most beautiful and least known countries in the 
East. 

The traveller will come in time, and he will 
pubHsh his experiences of Malaya and the Malays ; 
but while he may look upon the country with a 



PREFACE 

higher appreciation and paint its features with 
a more artistic touch, he will see few of those 
characteristics of the people, none of that inner life 
which, I make bold to say, is here faithfully por- 
trayed. 



FRANK SWETTENHAM. 



The Residency, 

Perak. 28 March 1895. 



"Quel est done ce pays, diaaient- 
ils I'un a I'autre, inconnu a tout le 
reste de la terrc, et ou toute la na- 
ture est d'une espece si difFerente 
de la notre?" 

Voltaire 

T MAGINE yourself transported to a land of eternal 
'■' summer, to that Golden Peninsula, 'twixt Hin- 
dustan and Far Cathay, from whence the early 
navigators brought back such wondrous stories of 
adventure. A land where Nature is at her best 
and richest : where plants and animals, beasts of 
the forest, birds of the air, and every living thing 
seem yet inspired with a feverish desire for growth 
and reproduction, as though they were still in the 
dawn of Creation. 

And Man? 

Yes, he is here. Forgotten by the world, passed 
by in the race for civilisation, here he has remained 



INTRODUCTION 

amongst his own forests, by the banks of his well- 
loved streams, unseeking and unsought. Whence 
he came none know and few care, but this is the 
land that has given to, or taken from, him the name 
of a Race that has spread over a wider area than 
any other Eastern people. 

Malaya, land of the pirate and the dmokf your 
secrets have been well guarded, but the enemy has 
at last passed your gate, and soon the irresistible 
Juggernaut of Progress will have penetrated to your 
remotest fastness, slain your beasts, cut down your 
forests, *' civilised" your people, clothed them in 
strange garments, and stamped them with the seal 
of a higher morality. 

That time of regeneration will come rapidly, bi t 
for the moment the Malay of the Peninsula is as h ; 
has been these hundreds of years. Education and 
contact with Western people must produce the 
inevitable result. Isolated native races whose 
numbers are few must disappear or conform to the 
views of a stronger will and a higher intelligence. 
The Malays of the Peninsula will not disappear, 



INTRODUCTION 

but they will change, and the process of " awaken- 
ing " has in places already begun. 

It might be rash to speculate on the gain which 
the future has in store for this people, but it is 
hardly likely to make them more personally inter- 
esting to the observer. This is the moment of 
transition, and these are sketches of the Malay 
as he is. 



Jeton8-nou8 dans cette petite barque, laissons-nous 
aller au courant : une riviere mene toujours a quelque 
endroit habite j si nous ne trouvons pas des choses 
agreables, nous trouverons du moins des choses 
nouvelles 

" • AUonSj' dit Candidc, ' reconnmandons-nous a la 
Providence ' " 

Voltaire 



MALAY SKETCHES 



THE REAL MALAY 

He was the mildest manner' d man 
That ever scuttled ship or cut a 
throat 

BvRON, Don Juan 

TO begin to understand the Malay you must live 
in his country, speak his language, respect 
his faith, be interested in his interests, humour his 
prejudices, sympathise with and help him in trouble, 
and share his pleasures and possibly his risks. Only 
thus can you hope to win his confidence. Only 
through that confidence can you hope to under- 
stand the inner man, and this knowledge can there- 
fore only come to those who have the opportunity 
and use it. 

So far the means of studying Malays in their own 
country (where alone they are seen in their true 



.0^^ 



c^> 



MALAY SKETCHES 

character) have fallen to few Europeans, and a very 
small proportion of them have shown an inclination 
to get to the hearts of the people. There are a 
hundred thousand Malays in Perak and some more 
in other parts of the Peninsula ; and the white man, 
whose interest in the race is strong enough, may not 
only win confidence but the devotion that is ready 
to give life itself in the cause of friendship. The 
Scripture says : "There is no greater thing than this," 
and in the end of the nineteenth century that is a 
form of friendship all too rare. Fortunately this is 
a thing you cannot buy, but to gain it is worth some 
effort. 

The real Malay is a short, thick-set, well-built 
man, with straight black hair, a dark brown com- 
plexion, thick nose and lips, and bright intelligent 
eyes. His disposition is generally kindly, his 
manners are polite and easy. Never cringing, he 
is reserved with strangers and suspicious, though he 
does not show it. He is courageous and trust- 
worthy in the discharge of an undertaking ; but he 
is extravagant, fond of borrowing money, and very 
slow in repaying it. He is a good talker, speaks in 
parables, quotes proverbs and wise saws, has a strong 
sense of humour, and is very fond of a good joke. 
He takes an interest in the affairs of his neighbours 



THE REAL MALAY 

and is consequently a gossip. He is a Muhammadan 
and a fatalist, but he is also very superstitious. He 
never drinks intoxicants, he is rarely an opium- 
smoker. But he is fond of gambling, cock-fighting, 
and kindred sports. He is by nature a sportsman, 
catches and tames elephants, is a skilful fisherman, 
and thoroughly at home in a boat. Above all 
things, he is conservative to a degree, is proud and 
fond of his country and his people, venerates his 
ancient customs and traditions, fears his Rajas, and 
has a proper respect for constituted authority — 
while he looks askance on all innovations, and will 
resist their sudden introduction. But if he has time 
to examine them carefully, and they are not thrust 
upon him, he is willing to be convinced of their 
advantage. At the same time he is a good imitative 
learner, and, when he has energy and ambition 
enough for the task, makes a good mechanic. He 
is, however, lazy to a degree, is without method or 
order of any kind, knows no regularity even in the 
hours of his meals, and considers time as of no im- 
portance. His house is untidy, even dirty, but he 
bathes twice a day, and is very fond of personal 
adornment in the shape of smart clothes. 

A Malay is intolerant of insult or slight ; it is 
something that to him should be wiped out in 

3 



MALAY SKETCHES 

blood. He will brood over a real or fancied stain 
on his honour until he is possessed by the desire 
for revenge. If he cannot wreak it on the offender, 
he w^ill strike out at the first human being that 
comes in his way, male or female, old or young. 
It is this state of blind fury, this vision of blood, 
that produces the amok. The Malay has often been 
called treacherous. I question whether he deserves 
the reproach more than other men. He is courteous 
and expects courtesy in return, and he understands 
only one method of avenging personal insults. 

The spirit of the clan is also strong in him. He 
acknowledges the necessity of carrying out, even 
blindly, the orders of his hereditary chief, while he 
will protect his own relatives at all costs and make 
their quarrel his own. 

The giving of gifts by Raja to subject, or subject 
to ruler, is a custom now falling into desuetude, 
but it still prevails on the occasion of the accession 
of a Raja, the appointment of high officers, a 
marriage, a circumcision, ear-piercing, or similar 
ceremony. As with other Eastern people, hospitality 
is to the Malay a sacred duty fulfilled by high and 
low, rich and poor alike. 

Though the Malay is an Islam by profession, and 
would sufier crucifixion sooner than deny his faith, 

4 



THE REAL MALAY 

he is not a bigot; indeed, his tolerance compares 
favourably with that of the professing Christian, 
and, when he thinks of these matters at all, he 
believes that the absence of hypocrisy is the begin- 
ning of religion. He has a sublime faith in God, 
the immortality of the soul, a heaven of ecstatic 
earthly delights, and a hell of punishments, which 
every individual is so confident will not be his own 
portion that the idea of its existence presents no 
terrors. 

Christian missionaries of all denominations have 
apparently abandoned the hope of his conversion. 

In his youth, the Malay boy is often beautiful, a 
thing of wonderful eyes, eyelashes, and eyebrows, 
with a far-away expression of sadness and solemnity, 
as though he had left some better place for a com- 
pulsory exile on earth. 

Those eyes, which are extraordinarily large and 
clear, seem filled with a pained wonder at all they 
see here, and they give the impression of a constant 
effort to open ever wider and wider in search of 
something they never find. Unlike the child of 
Japan, this cherub never looks as if his nurse had 
forgotten to wipe his nose. He is treated with 
elaborate respect, sleeps when he wishes, and sits 
up till any hour of the night if he so desires, eats 

5 



MALAY SKETCHES 

when he is hungry, has no toys, is never whipped, 
and hardly ever cries. 

Until he is fifteen or sixteen, this atmosphere of 
a better world remains about him. He is often 
studious even, and duly learns to read the Koran 
in a language he does not understand. 

Then, w^ell then, from sixteen to twenty-five or 
later he is to be avoided. He takes his pleasure, 
sows his wild oats like youths of a higher civilisa- 
tion, is extravagant, open-handed, gambles, gets 
into debt, runs away with his neighbour's wife, and 
generally asserts himself. Then follows a period 
when he either adopts this path and pursues it, or, 
more commonly, he weans himself gradually from 
an indulgence that has not altogether reaHzed his 
expectation, and if, under the advice of older men, 
he seeks and obtains a position of credit and use- 
fulness in society from which he begins at last to 
earn some profit, he will, from the age of forty, 
probably develop into an intelligent man of miserly 
and rather grasping habits with some one little pet 
indulgence of no very expensive kind. 

The Malay girl-child is not usually so attractive 
in appearance as the boy, and less consideration is 
shown to her. She runs wild till the time comes 
for investing her in a garment, that is to say when 

6 



THE REAL MALAY 

she is about five years old. From then, she is 
taught to help in the house and kitchen, to sew, to 
read and write, perhaps to work in the padi field, 
but she is kept out of the way of all strange men- 
kind. When fifteen or sixteen, she is often almost 
interesting ; very shy, very fond of pretty clothes 
and ornaments, not uncommonly much fairer in 
complexion than the Malay man, with small hands 
and feet, a happy smiling face, good teeth, and 
wonderful eyes and eyebrows — the eyes of the little 
Malay boy. The Malay girl is proud of a wealth 
of straight, black hair, of a spotless olive com- 
plexion, of the arch of her brow — " like a one-day- 
old moon " — of the curl of her eyelashes, and of the 
dimples in cheek or chin. 

Unmarried girls are taught to avoid all men 
except those nearly related to them. Until mar- 
riage, it is considered unmaidenly for them to raise 
their eyes or take any part or interest in their 
surroundings when men are present. This leads to 
an affectation of modesty which, however over- 
strained, deceives nobody. 

After marriage, a woman gets a considerable 
amount of freedom which she naturally values. In 
Perak a man, who tries to shut his womenkind up 
and prevent their intercourse with others and a 

7 



MALAY SKETCHES 

participation in the fates and pleasures of Malay 
society, is looked upon as a jealous, ill-conditioned 
person. 

Malays are extremely particular about questions 
of rank and birth, especially when it comes to 
marriage, and mesalliances^ as understood in the 
West, are with them very rare. 

The general characteristics of Malay women, 
especially those of gentle birth, are powers of 
intelligent conversation, quickness in repartee, a 
strong sense of humour and an instant appreciation 
of the real meaning of those hidden sayings which 
are hardly ever absent from their conversation. 
They are fond of reading such literature as their 
language offers, and they use uncommon words and 
expressions, the meanings of which are hardly 
known to men. For the telling of secrets, they 
have several modes of speech not understanded of 
the people. 

They are generally amiable in disposition, mildly 
— sometimes fiercely — ^jealous, often extravagant 
and, up to about the age of forty, evince an 
increasing fondness for jewellery and smart clothes. 
In these latter days they are developing a pretty 
taste for horses, carriages, and whatever conduces 
to luxury and display, though, in their houses, there 



THE REAL MALAY 

are still a rugged simplicity and untidiness, absolutely 
devoid of all sense of order. 

A Malay is allowed by law to have as many as 
four wives, to divorce them, and replace them. If 
he is well off and can afford so much luxury, he 
usually takes advantage of the power to marry 
more than one wife, to divorce and secure successors ; 
but he seldom undertakes the responsibility of four 
wives at one time. The woman on her part can, 
and often does, obtain a divorce from her husband. 
Written conditions of marriage, '* settlements " of 
a kind, are common with people in the upper 
classes, and the law provides for the custody of 
children, division of property, and so on. The 
ancient maiden lady is an unknown quantity, so is 
the Malay public woman ; and, as there is no society 
bugbear, the people lead lives that are almost 
natural. There are no drunken husbands, no hob- 
nail boots, and no screaming viragoes — because a 
word would get rid of them. All forms of mad- 
ness, mania, and brain-softening are extremely rare. 

The Malay has ideas on the subject of marriage, 
ideas born of his infinite experience. He has even 
soared into regions of matrimonial philosophy, and 
returned with such crumbs of lore as never fall to 
the poor monogamist. 

9 



MALAY SKETCHES 

I am not going to give away the secrets of the 
life behind the curtain ; if I wished to do so I 
might trip over difficulties of expression ; but in 
spite of the Malay's reputation for bloodthirstiness, 
in spite of (or because of, whichever you please) the 
fact that he is impregnated with the doctrines of 
Islam, in spite of his sensitive honour and his 
proneness to revenge, and in spite of his desire to 
keep his own women (when young and attractive) 
away from the prying eyes of other men, he yet 
holds this uncommon faith, that if he has set his 
affections on a woman, and for any reason he is 
unable at once to make her his own, he cares not 
to how many others she allies herself provided she 
becomes his before time has robbed her of her 
physical attractions. 

His reason is this. He says (certainly not to a 
stranger, rarely even to his Malay friends, but to 
himself) " if, after all this experience, she likes me 
best, I have no fear that she will wish to go further 
afield. All Malay girls marry before they are 
twenty, and the woman who has only known one 
husband, however attractive he may be, will come 
sooner or later to the conviction that life with 
another promises new and delightful experiences 
not found in the society of the first man to whom 

10 



THE REAL MALAY 

destiny and her relatives have chosen to unite her. 
Thus some fool persuades her that in his worship 
and passion she will find the World's Desire, and 
it is only after perhaps a long and varied experience 
that she realizes that, having started for a voyage 
on the ocean, she finds herself seated at the bottom 
of a dry well." 

It is possible that thus she becomes acquainted 
with truth. 



II 



II 

THE TIGER 

Yon golden terror, barred with ebon 

stripes 
Low-crouching horror, with the cruel 

fangs 
Waiting in deathly stillness for thy 

spring 

Anon. 

SOME idea of what Malays are in their own 
country may best be conveyed by taking the 
reader in imagination through some scenes of their 
daily life. The tiger, for instance, is seldom delibe- 
rately sought ; if he kills a buffalo a spring gun is 
set to shoot him when he returns for his afternoon 
meal, but sometimes the tiger comes about a village, 
and it is necessary to get rid of so dangerous a 
visitor. Let me try and put the scene before you. 
But how describe an Eastern dawn ? Sight 
alone will give a true impression of its strange 
beauty. Out of darkness and stillness, the transi- 



THE TIGER 

tion to light — intense brilliant light — and the sounds 
of awakened life, is rapid and complete, a short half 
hour or less turning night into tropical day. The 
first indication of dawn is a grey haze, then the 
clouds clothing the Western hills are shot with pale 
yellow and in a few minutes turn to gold, while 
Eastern ranges are still in darkness. The light 
spreads to the Western slopes, moves rapidly across 
the valleys, and suddenly the sun, a great ball of 
fire, appears above the Eastern hills. The fogs, 
which have risen from the rivers and marshes and 
covered the land, as with a pall, rise like smoke and 
disappear, and the whole face of nature is flooded 
with light, the valleys and slopes of the Eastern 
ranges being the last to feel the influence of the 
risen sun. 

That grey half-light which precedes dawn is the 
signal for Malays to be stirring. The doors are 
opened, and, only half awake and shivering in the 
slight breeze made by the rising fog, they leave 
their houses and make for the nearest stream, there 
to bathe and fetch fresh water for the day's use. 

A woman dressed in the sarongs a plaid skirt 
of silk or cotton, and a jacket, walks rapidly to the 
river, carrying a long bamboo and some gourds, 
which, after her bath, she fills, and begins to walk 

13 



MALAY SKETCHES 

home through the wealth of vegetation that clothes 
the whole face of the country. She follows a narrow 
path up from the bed of the clear stream, the jungle 
trees and orchards, the long rank grasses and tangled 
creepers almost hiding the path. Suddenly she 
stops spellbound, her knees give way under her, the 
vessels drop from her nerveless hands, and a speech- 
less fear turns her blood to water ; for there, in front 
of her, is a great black and yellow head with cruel 
yellow eyes, and a half-open mouth showing a red 
tongue and long white teeth. The shoulders and 
fore feet of the tiger stand clear of the thick foliage, 
and a hoarse low roar of surprise and anger comes 
from the open mouth. An exceeding great fear 
chains the terrified woman to the spot, and the 
tiger, thus faced, sulkily and with more hoarse 
grumbling, slowly draws back into the jungle and 
disappears. Then the instinct of self-preservation 
returns to the woman, and, with knees still weak 
and a cold hand on her heart, she stumbles, with 
what speed she may, back to the river, down the 
bank, and to the friendly shelter of the nearest 
dwelling. 

It takes little time to tell the story, and the men 
of the house, armed with spears and krises and an 
old rusty gun, quickly spread the news throughout 

14 



THE TIGER 

the kampong, as each cluster of huts and orchards 
is called. Every one arms himself with such 
weapons as he possesses, the boys of sixteen or 
seventeen climb into trees, from which they hope 
to see and be able to report the movements of 
the beast. The men, marshalled by the ka-tua 
kampong^ the village chief, make their plans for 
surrounding the spot where the tiger was seen, and 
word is sent by messenger to the nearest police- 
station and European officer. 

Whilst all this is taking place, the tiger, probably 
conscious that too many people are about, leaves 
his lair and stealthily creeps along a path which will 
lead him far from habitations. But, as he does so, 
he passes under a tree where sits one of the young 
watchmen, and the boy, seizing his opportunity, 
drops a heavy spear on the tiger as he passes, and 
gives him a serious wound. The beast, with a roar 
of pain, leaps into the jungle, carrying the spear 
with him ; and, after what he considers a safe 
interval, the boy climbs down, gets back to the 
circle of watchers, and reports what has occurred. 

For a long time, there is silence, no one caring to 
go in and seek a wounded tiger — but this monotony 
is broken rudely and suddenly by a shot on the out- 
skirts of the wide surrounding ring of beaters where 

15 



MALAY SKETCHES 

a young Malay has been keeping guard over a 
jungle track. Instantly the nearest rush to the 
spot only to find the boy badly wounded, after 
firing a shot that struck the tiger but did not pre- 
vent him reaching and pulling down the youth who 
fired it. 

Hardly has a party carried the wounded man to 
shelter, than news arrives that, in trying to break 
the ring at another point, the tiger has sprung upon 
the point of a spear held in rest by a kneeling Malay, 
and, the spear, passing completely through the beast's 
body, the tiger has come down on the man's back 
and killed him. The old men say it is because, 
regardless of the wisdom of their ancestors, fools 
now face a tiger with spears unguarded, whereas in 
the olden time it was always the custom to tie a 
crosspiece of wood where blade joins shaft to pre- 
vent the tiger "running up the spear" and killing 
his opponent. 

The game is getting serious now and the tiger 
has retired to growl and roar in a thick isolated 
copse of bushes and tangled undergrowth from 
which it seems impossible to draw him, and where 
it would be madness to seek him. 

By this time, all the principal people in the neigh- 
bourhood have been collected. The copse is sur- 

i6 



THE TIGER 

rounded and two elephants are ridden at the cover^ 
in the hope of driving the wounded tiger from his- 
shelter. A vain hope, for, when the huge beasts 
get inconveniently near to him, the tiger, with a 
great roar, springs on to the shoulder of the nearest 
elephant and brings him to his knees. The terrified 
occupants of the howdah are thus deposited on the 
ground, but lose no time in picking themselves up 
and getting away. The elephant with a scream of 
terror whirls round, throwing off the tiger with a 
broken tooth, and, accompanied by his fellow,, 
rushes from the place and will not be stopped till 
several miles have been covered and the river is 
between them and their enemy. 

Severe maladies want desperate and heroic 
remedies. After a short consultation, a young 
Malay chief and several of his friends, armed only 
with spears, express their determination to seek the 
tiger where he lies. They immediately put the plan 
into execution. Shoulder to shoulder and with 
spears in rest, they advance to the copse. They 
have not long to wait in doubt for the wounded and 
enraged beast, with open mouth and eyes blazing 
fell purpose, charges straight at them. There is the 
shock of flesh against steel, an awful snarling and 
straining of muscles and the already badly wounded 

17 B 



MALAY SKETCHES 

tiger is pinned to the ground and dies under the 
thrusts of many spears. 

The general result of a tiger hunt, under such 
circumstances, is the death or serious injury of one 
or two of the pursuers. 



18 



Ill 

A FISHING PICNIC 

I have given you lands to hunt in, 
I have given you streams to fish in. 
Filled the river full of fishes 

Longfellow 

NOW come to a Malay picnic. 
Again, it is early morning, the guests have 
been invited overnight and warned to come on their 
elephants and bring *' rice and salt." By the time 
the sun is well up there are fifty or sixty people (of 
whom about half are women), mounted on twelve or 
fifteen elephants, and some boys and followers are 
prepared to walk. 

The word is given to make for a great limestone 
hill rising abruptly out of the plain, for, close 
round the foot of this rock, eating its way into the 
unexplored depths of subaqueous caves, flows a 
clear mountain-bred stream, and, in the silent pools 
which lie under the shadow of the cliff, are the fish 

19 



MALAY SKETCHES 

which with the rice and salt, will make the coming 
feast. 

The ,road lies through six or seven miles of 
open country and virgin forest, and it is 9 or 
10 A.M. before the river is reached, the elephants 
hobbled, and the men of the party ready for 
business. 

In days gone by, the method would have been to 
tuba the stream above a pool, but this poisoning of 
the water affects the river for miles, and dynamite 
which is not nearly so destructive is preferred. The 
plan is to select a large and deep pool round which 
the men stand ready to spring in, while the women 
make a cordon across the shallow at its lower end, 
ready to catch the fish that escape the hands of the 
swimmers. Two cartridges of dynamite with a de- 
tonator and a piece of slow match are tied to a stone 
and thrown into the deepest part of the pool, there is 
an explosion sending up a great column of water, 
and immediately the dead fish come to the surface 
and begin to float down stream. Twenty men 
spring into the pool, and with shouts and laughter 
struggle for the slippery fish ; those which elude the 
grasp of the swimmers are caught by the women. 
It will then be probably discovered that no very big 
fish have been taken ; and, as it is certain that some 



A FISHING PICNIC 

at least should be there, the boldest and best divers 
will search the bottom of the pool and even look into 
the water-filled caves of the rock that there rises 
sheer out of the stream. Success rewards this 
effort, and, from the bed of the pool, some sixteen 
or eighteen feet deep, the divers bring up two at a 
time, great silvery fish weighing ten to fifteen pounds 
each. There is much joy over the capture of these 
klah and tengas^ the best kinds of fresh water fish 
known here, and, if the total take is not a large 
one, the operation will be repeated in another and 
yet another pool, until a sufficient quantity of fish 
has been secured and every one is tired of the 
water. 

There is a general change of wet garments for 
dry ones, no difficult matter, while long before this 
fires have been made on the bank, rice is boiling, 
fish are roasting in split sticks, grilling, frying, and 
the hungry company is settling itself in groups 
ready for the meal. It is a matter of honour that 
no plates should be used, so every one has a piece of 
fresh green plantain leaf to hold his rice and salt and 
fish, while nature suppHes the forks and spoons. 
Whether it is the exercise, the excitement, or the 
coldness of the two hours' bath, that is most re- 
sponsible for the keen appetites is not worth 

21 



MALAY SKETCHES 

inquiring, but thorough justice is done to the food ; 
and if you, reader, should ever be fortunate enough 
to take part in one of these picnics, you will declare 
that you never before realised how delicious a meal 
can be made of such simple ingredients. Some one 
has smuggled in a few condiments and they add 
largely to the success of the Malay bouille-ahaissCy 
but people affect not to know they are there, and 
you go away assured that rice and salt did it all. 
That is part of the game. 

And now it is time to return, the sun has long 
passed the meridian, and there is a mile or two of 
forest before getting into the open country. The 
timid amongst the ladies feign alarm (Malays are 
sensible people who take only the young to picnics, 
and leave the old to mind the houses), and a desire 
to get away at once, but there are others who know 
what is in store for them. 

The elephants are brought up and each pannier 
is found to be loaded with jungle fruit, large and 
small, ripe and unripe, hard and soft, but generally 
hard as stones. Every one knows the meaning of 
this and, as the elephants kneel down to take their 
riders, you may observe that usually two men sit in 
front, two women behind, and the latter are anxious 
about their umbrellas and show a tendency to open 

22 



A FISHING PICNIC 

them here where, in the gloom of the forest, they 
are not needed. The first two or three elephants 
move off quickly, and, having turned a corner in the 
path, disappear. It is necessary to proceed in Indian 
file, and as the next elephant comes to this corner 
he and his company are assailed by a perfect shower 
of missiles (the jungle fruit) from the riders of the 
first section of elephants who are slily waiting here 
to surprise those behind. The attack is returned 
with interest and the battle wages hot and furious. 
The leaders of the rear column try to force their 
way past those who dispute the path with them, and 
either succeed or put the enemy to flight only to find 
a succession of ambuscades laid for them, each 
resulting in a deadly struggle, and so, throughout 
the length of the forest, the more venturesome 
pushing their way to the front or taking up an 
independent line and making enemies of all comers, 
until, at last, the whole party clears the jungle and^ 
taking open order, a succession of wild charges soon 
gets every one into the fray and, the supply of am- 
munition having run out, there is nothing left but to 
count the damage done. 

It is principally in broken umbrellas which have 
been used as shields, but some garments are stained^ 
and there may be a few bruises treated with much 

23 



MALAY SKETCHES 

.^ood humour, and, by the time the party has 
straightened its dishevelledness, it is found that 
miles of otherwise tedious journey have been 
passed and every one is home ere the lengthening 
shadows suddenly contract and tell the sun has 
set. 



24 



/ 



IV 
THE MURDER OF THE HAWKER 

It is a damned and bloody work, 
The graceless action of a heavy hand 
King John 

ONE afternoon, in 1892, a foreign Malay named 
Lenggang, who made a living by hawking 
in a boat on the Perak River, left Bota with his 
usual cargo and a hundred dollars which his cousin, 
the son of the PenghulUj had been keeping for him. 
He was alone in the boat and dropped down stream, 
saying he would call at some of the villages that 
line at intervals the banks of the river. 

The next day this man's dead body, lying partly 
under a mosquito curtain, was discovered in the 
boat as it drifted past the village of Pulau Tiga. 
The local headman viewed it, but saw nothing to 
arouse his suspicions, for the boat was full of 
valuables and a certain amount of money, while 
nothing in it seemed to have been disturbed, and 

25 



MALAY SKETCHES 

there were no marks of violence on the corpse, which 
was duly buried. 

When the matter was reported, inquiries were 
made but they ehcited nothing. Some months after 
the relatives of the dead man appeared at Teluk 
Anson, and said they had good reason to believe that 
he had met with foul play, indeed that he had been 
murdered at a place called Lambor — a few miles 
below Bota and above Pulau Tiga. An intelligent 
Malay sergeant of police proceeded to the spot, 
arrested a number of people, who denied all know- 
ledge of the affair, and took them to Teluk Anson. 
Arrived there, these people said they were able to 
give all the necessary information if that would 
procure their release, as they had only promised to 
keep their mouths shut so long as they themselves 
did not suffer for it. 

The details of the story as told in evidence are as 
follows, and they are very characteristic of the 
Malay : 

It appears that the hawker duly arrived in his 
boat at Lambor, and there tied up for the night to 
a stake, about twenty feet from the bank of the 
river. Shortly afterwards a Malay named Ngah 
Prang, stopped three of his acquaintances walking 
on the bank, asked them if they had seen the 

26 



THE MURDER OF THE HAWKER 

hawker's boat, and suggested that it would be a good 
thing to rob him. They said they were afraid, and 
some other men coming up asked one of those to 
whom the proposal had been made what they were 
talking about, and, being told, advised him to have 
nothing to do with the business and the party 
dispersed. 

That evening, at 8 p.m., several people heard 
cries of " help, help, I am being killed," from the 
river, and five or six men ran out of their houses 
down to the bank, a distance of only fifty yards, 
whence they saw, in the brilliant moonlight, Ngah 
Prang and two other men in the hawker's boat, the 
hawker lying flat on his back while one man had 
both hands at his throat, another held his wrists, 
and the third his feet ; but it is said that those on 
the bank heard a noise of rapping as though feet 
were kicking or hands beating quickly the deck of 
the boat. It only lasted for a moment and then 
there was silence. 

As those who had been roused by the cries came 
down the bank they called to the men in the boat, 
barely twenty feet away, and lighted at their work 
by the brilliancy of an Eastern moon, to know what 
they were doing ; they even addressed them by 
their names, but these gave no answer, and, getting 

27 



MALAY SKETCHES 

up from off the hawker, untied the boat, one taking 
a pole and another the rudder and disappeared down 
the river. The hawker did not move. He was 
dead. 

The witnesses of this tragedy appear then to have 
returned to their homes and slept peacefully. 
Several of them naively remarked that they heard 
the next day that the hawker had been found dead 
in his boat, and it appears that when one of these 
witnesses, on the following day, met one of the 
murderers, he asked him what he was doing in 
Lenggang's boat, and the man replied that they 
were robbing him, that he held the hawker by the 
throat, the others by the hands and feet, but that 
really they had got very little for their trouble. 

Meanwhile the three murderers told several of 
the eye-witnesses of the affair that, if they said 
anything, it would be the worse for them, and 
nothing particular occurred till a notice was posted 
in the Mosque calling upon any one who knew 
anything about Lenggang's death to report it to the 
village Headman. Then Ngah Prang, who appa- 
rently was the original instigator of the job, as so 
often happens, thought he would save himself at the 
expense of his friends, and actually went himself to 
make a report, and, meeting on the way one of the 

28 



THE MURDER OF THE HAWKER 

eye-witnesses going on a similar errand, he per- 
suaded him to give a quaHfied promise to help in 
denying Ngah Prang's complicity while convicting 
the others. 

Needless to say that, from the moment the first 
disclosure was made and communicated to the 
police, resulting in the arrest of a number of those 
who had actually witnessed the crime, every smallest 
detail was gradually brought to light, the hawker's 
property, even his own clothes, gradually recovered, 
the money stolen from him traced, and no single 
link left wanting in the chain of evidence strong 
enough to convict and hang the guilty men. That 
indeed was the result. 

I have told the story of this crime, which is 
devoid of sensational incident, because it will give 
some idea of the state of feeHng in a real Malay 
kampong of poor labouring people far from any 
outside influence. The man murdered was a Malay ; 
the idea that he was worth something which could 
be obtained by the insignificant sacrifice of his life 
seems to have at once suggested that Providence 
was putting a good thing in the way of poor people, 
and those who were not afraid determined that the 
opportunity was not to be lost. The murder is 
discussed practically in public ; it is executed also 

29 



MALAY SKETCHES 

in public, in the presence of a feebly expostulating 
opposition, and then every one goes to bed. The 
only further concern of the community in the matter 
is as to how much the murderers got. For them 
the incident ends there, and, if any one has any 
qualms of conscience, they are silenced by the 
threats of the men who so easily throttled the 
hawker. 

It is only when inquiries are pushed, and things 
are made generally unpleasant for every one, that 
the truth is unwillingly disclosed, and the penalty 
paid. 



30 



MENG-GELUNCHOR 

And falling and crawling and sprawl- 
ing, 

And driving and riving and striving, 

And sprinkling and twinkling and 
winkling, 

And sounding and bounding and 
rounding. 
Dividing and gliding and sliding, 

And trumping and plumping and 
bumping and jumping, 

And dashing and flashing and splash- 
ing and clashing 

SOUTHEY 

THE Malays of Perak occasionally indulge them- 
selves in a form of amusement which, I believe, 
is peculiar to them. Though of ancient origin, it is 
not well known even here, and, as new sensations 
are the desire oi our time, I offer it to the iaded 
pleasure-seekers of the West. 

Given a fine sunny morning (and that is what 
most mornings are in P€rak) you will drive four or 

31 



MALAY SKETCHES 

five miles to the appointed place of meeting, and 
there find a crowd of one or two hundred Malay 
men, women, and children, who have been duly 
bidden to meng-gelunchor and to take part in the 
picnic which forms a recognised accompaniment to 
the proceedings. 

A walk of a couple of miles along a shady jungle 
path brings the party to the foot of a spur of hills, 
whence a clear mountain stream leaps down a suc- 
cession of cascades to fertilise the plain. There is 
a stiff climb for several hundred feet until the party 
gains a great granite rock in the bed of the stream, 
large enough to accommodate a much more numerous 
gathering. In a " spate " this rock might be 
covered, but now the water flows round it and 
dashes itself wildly over the falls below. Up- 
stream, however, there is a sheer smooth face of 
granite, about sixty feet long, inclined at an angle 
of say 45 ^, and, while the main body of water finds 
its way down one side of this rock and then across 
its foot, a certain quantity, only an inch or two deep, 
flows steadily down the face. The depth of water 
here can be increased at will by bamboo troughs, 
leading out of the great pool which lies at the head 
of the waterfall. At the base of the rock is an in- 
viting lynn not more than four feet deep. On either 

32 



MENG-GELUNCHOR 

side, the river is shut in by a wealth of jungle 
foliage through which the sun strikes at rare 
intervals, just sufficiently to give the sense of 
warmth and colour. 

It is dehghtfully picturesque with all these people 
in their many-coloured garments, grouped in artistic 
confusion, on bank and rock. They only sit for a 
brief rest after the climb, to collect wood, make fires 
and get the work of cooking started, and you will 
not be left long in doubt as to the meaning of 
meng-gelunchor. It is to slide, and the game is to 
''toboggan" down this waterfall into the lynn at its 
base. 

A crowd of little boys is already walking up the 
steep, slippery rock. They go to the very top, sit 
down in the shallow water with feet straight out in 
front of them and a hand on either side for guidance, 
and immediately begin to slide down the sixty feet 
of height, gaining, before they have gone half way, 
so great a speed that the final descent into the pool 
is like the fall of a stone. They succeed each other 
in a constant stream, those behind coming on the 
top of those who have already reached the lynn. 

But now the men, and lastly the women, are drawn 
to join the sliders and the fun becomes indeed both 
fast and furious. The women begin timidly, only 

33 c 



MALAY SKETCHES 

half way up the sHde, but soon grow bolder, and 
mixed parties of four, six, and eight in rows of two, 
three, or four each, start together and, with a good 
deal of laughter and ill-directed attempts at mutual 
assistance, dash wildly into the pool which is almost 
constantly full of a struggling, screaming crowd of 
young people of both sexes. 

If you understand the game, the slide is a graceful 
progress, but, if you don't, if you fail to sit erect, if 
you do not keep your feet together, above all, if you 
lose your balance and do not remain absolutely 
straight on the sHde, then your descent will be far 
from graceful, it may even be slightly painful, and 
the final plunge into the lynn will be distinctly 
undignified. It is well to leave your dignity at 
home, if you go to meng-gUunchor with a Malay 
party, for those who do not weary themselves with 
tobogganing become absolutely exhausted with 
laughing at the sliders. The fascination of the 
thing is extraordinary, and, to read this poor de- 
scription, you would think it impossible that any 
sane person would spend hours in struggling up a 
steep and slippery rock to slide down it on two 
inches of water, and, having gained a startling 
velocity, leap into a shallow pool where half a dozen 
people will be on you before you can get out of the 

34 



MENG-GELUNCHOR 

way. And yet I am persuaded that, if your joints 
are not stiff with age and you are not afraid of 
cold water, or ridicule, or personal damage (and you 
will admit none of those things) you would meng- 
gelunchor with the best of them, nor be the first to 
cry " hold, enough." 

It is usual for the men, when sliding down the 
rock, to sit upon a piece of the thick fibre of the 
plantain called upth. It is perhaps advisable, but 
the women do not seem to want it. It is surprising 
that there are so few casualties and of such small 
importance — some sHght abrasions, a little bumping 
of heads, at most the loss of a tooth, will be the 
extent of the total damage, and with a little care 
there need be none at all. 

By I P.M. every one will probably be tired, dry 
garments are donned, and a very hungry company 
does ample justice to the meal. An hour will be 
spent in smoking and gossip, and, as the shadows 
begin to lengthen, a long procession slowly wends 
its way back, down the slippery descent, across the 
sunny fields, and through the forest, to the trysting- 
place where all met in the morning and whence they 
now return to their own homes. 

The intelligent reader will realise that this is a 
game abounding in possibilities, but the players 

35 



MALAY SKETCHES 

should be chosen with discrimination and with due 
regard to individual affinities. 

A sunny climate and surroundings of natural 
beauty are necessary ; but a wooded ravine on the 
Riviera or by the shore of an Italian lake, a clear 
stream leaping down a steep rocky bed, and the 
rest can be easily arranged by a little cutting and 
polishing of stone. 

Besides the novelty and charm of the exercise, 
the exhilarating motion, the semblance of danger, 
the clutchings at the nearest straws for help — there 
are infinite opportunities for designing and donning 
attractive garments wherein the graceful lines of 
the human form would be less jealously hidden than 
in the trappings of stern convention. 

Puffed sleeves and a bell skirt, Louis XIV. 
heels and an eighteen inch waist, would be incon- 
venient and out of place when sliding down a 
waterfall in the hope of a safe and graceful plunge 
into a shallow lynn. 

But if the company be well chosen, the venue 
and the climate such as can be found at a hundred 
places between St. Tropez and Salerno, if there is 
in the costumes and the luncheon only a fair appli- 
cation of Art to Nature, the Eastern pastime is 
capable of easy and successful acclimatisation in 

36 



MENG-GELUNCHOR 

the West. And as the knights and dames stroll 
slowly down the wooded glen, and the sinking sun 
strikes long shafts of light across their path, 
glorifying all colours, not least the tint of hair and 
eyes, the pleasure-seekers, if they have not by then 
found some more mutually interesting topic, will be 
very unanimous in their praise of Meng-gUunchor. 



37 



VI 



AMOK 



There comes a time 
When the insatiate brute within the 

man, 
Weary with wallowing in the mire, 

leaps forth 
Devouring .... and the soul sinks 
And leaves the man a devil 

Lewis Morris 

MENTION has been made of the Malay amok, 
and, as what, with our happy faculty for 
mispronunciation and misspelling of the words of 
other languages, is called '^ running amuck," is with 
many English people their only idea of the Malay, 
and that a very vague one, it may be of interest to 
briefly describe this form of homicidal mania. 

Meng'dmok is to make a sudden, murderous 
attack, and though it is applied to the onslaught of 
a body of men in war time, or where plunder is the 
object and murder the means to arrive at it, the 
term is more commonly used to describe the action 
of an individual who, suddenly and without apparent 
cause, seizes a weapon and strikes out blindly, kill- 

38 



AMOK 

ing and wounding all who come in his way, regard- 
less of age or sex, whether they be friends, strangers, 
or his own nearest relatives. 

Just before sunset on the evening of the iith 
February, 1891, a Malay named Imam Mamat (that 
is Mamat the priest) came quietly into the house 
of his brother-in-law at Pasir Garam on the Perak 
River, carrying a spear and a golokj i.e. a sharp, 
pointed cutting knife. 

The Imam went up to his brother-in-law, took 
his hand and asked his pardon. He then approached 
his own wife and similarly asked her pardon, imme- 
diately stabbing her fatally in the abdomen with the 
golok. She fell, and her brother, rushing to assist 
her, received a mortal wound in the heart. The 
brother-in-law's wife was in the house with four 
children, and they managed to get out before the 
Imam had time to do more than stab the last of 
them, a boy, in the back as he left the door. At 
this moment, a man, who had heard the screams of 
the women, attempted to enter the house, when the 
Imam rushed at him and inflicted a slight wound, 
the man falling to the ground and getting away. 

Having secured two more spears which he found 
in the house, the murderer now gave chase to the 
woman and her three little children and made short 

39 



MALAY SKETCHES 

work of them. A tiny girl of four years old and 
a boy of seven were killed, while the third child 
received two wounds in the back ; a spear thrust 
disposed of the mother — all this within one hundred 
yards of the house. 

The Imam now walked down the river bank, 
where he was met by a friend named Uda Majid, 
rash enough to think his unarmed influence would 
prevail over the other's madness. 

He greeted the Imam respectfully, and said, *'You 
recognise me, don't let there be any trouble." 

The Imam replied, " Yes, I know you, but my 
spear does not," and immediately stabbed him twice. 

Though terribly injured, Uda Majid wrested the 
spear from the Imam, who again stabbed him twice, 
this time in lung and windpipe, and he fell. Another 
man coming up ran unarmed to the assistance of 
Uda Majid, when the murderer turned on the new- 
comer and pursued him ; but, seeing Uda Majid get 
up and attempt to stagger away, the Imam went 
back to him and, with two more stabs in the back, 
killed him. Out of the six wounds inflicted on this 
man three would have proved fatal. 

The murderer now rushed along the river bank, 

and was twice seen to wade far out into the water 

and return. Then he was lost sight of. 

40 



AMOK 

By this time the news had spread up stream and 
down, and every one was aware that there was 
abroad an armed man who would neither give nor 
receive quarter. 

For two days, a body of not less than two hundred 
armed men under the village chiefs made ceaseless 
but unavailing search for the murderer. At 6 p.m. 
on the second day. Imam Mamat suddenly appeared 
in front of the house of a man called Lasam, who 
had barely time to slam the door in his face and 
fasten it. The house at that moment contained four 
men, five women, and seven children, and the only 
weapon they possessed was one spear. 

Lasam asked the Imam what he wanted, and he 
said he wished to be allowed to sleep in the house. 
He was told he could do so if he would throw away 
his arms, and to this the Imam replied by an attempt 
to spear Lasam through the window. The latter, 
however, seized the weapon, and with the help of 
his son, wrested it out of the Imam's hands, Lasam 
receiving a stab in the face from the golok. During 
this struggle, the Imam had forced himself halfway 
through the window, and Lasam seizing his own 
spear, thrust it into the thigh of the murderer, who 
fell to the ground. In the fall, the shaft of the 
spear broke off, leaving the blade in the wound. 

41 



MALAY SKETCHES 

It was now pitch dark, and, as the people of the 
house did not know the extent of the Imam's injury 
or what he was doing, a man went out by the back 
to spread the news and call the village headman. 
On his arrival the light of a torch showed the Imam 
lying on the ground with his weapons out of reach, 
and the headman promptly pounced upon him and 
secured him. 

The Imam was duly handed over to the police and 
conveyed to Teluk Anson, but he died from loss of 
blood within twenty-four hours of receiving his wound. 

Here is the official list of killed and wounded — 



Killed. 

Alang Rasak, wife of Imam Mamat 
Bilal Abu, brother-in-law of Mamat 
Ngah Intan, wife of Bilal Abu 
Puteh, daughter of Bilal Abu . 
Mumin, son of Bilal Abu 
Uda Majid . . . . , 

Wounded. 

Kasim, son of Bilal Abu 

Teh, daughter of Bilal Abu . 

Mat Sah . . . . , 

Lasam .... 

42 



%ged 


33 




35 




32 




4 




7 




35 


aged 


14 


ft 


6 


ft 


45 



AMOK 

It is terrible to have to add that both the women 
were far advanced in pregnancy. 

Imam Mamat was a man of over forty years of 
age, of good repute with his neighbours, and I never 
heard any cause suggested why this quiet, elderly 
man of devotional habits should suddenly, without 
apparent reason, develop the most inhuman instincts 
and brutally murder a number of men, women, and 
children, his nearest relatives and friends. It is, 
however, quite possible that the man was suffer- 
ing under the burden of some real or fancied 
wrong which, after long brooding, darkened his 
eyes and possessed him with this insane desire 
to kill. 

An autopsy was performed on the murderer's 
body, and the published report of the surgeon says : 
" I hereby certify that I this day made a post-mortem 
examination of the body of Imam Mahomed, and 
find him to have died from haemorrhage from a 
wound on the outer side of right thigh ; the internal 
organs were healthy except that the membranes of 
the right side of brain were more adherent than 
usual." 



43 



VII 
THE JOGET 

Every footstep fell as lightly 
As a sunbeam on the river 

Longfellow's Spanish Student 

MALAYS are not dancers, but they pay profes- 
sional performers to dance for their amuse- 
ment, and consider that ** the better part " is with 
those who watch, at their ease, the exertions of a 
small class whose members are not held in the 
highest respect. The spectacle usually provided is 
strangely wanting in attraction ; a couple of women 
shuffling their feet, and swaying their hands in 
gestures that are practically devoid of grace or even 
variety — that is the Malay dance — and it is accom- 
panied by the beating of native drums, the striking 
together of two short sticks held in either hand, and 
the occasional boom of a metal gong. The enter- 
tainment has an undoubted fascination for Malays, 
but it generally forms part of a theatrical perform - 

44 



THE JOGET 

ance, and for Western spectators it is immeasur- 
ably dull. 

In one of the Malay States, however, Pahang, it 
has for years been the custom for the ruler and one 
or two of his near relatives to keep trained dancing 
girls, who perform what is called the " Joget " — a 
real dance with an accompaniment of something like 
real music, though the orchestral instruments are 
very rude indeed. 

The dancers, budak joget^ belong to the Raja's 
household, they may even be attached to him by a 
closer tie ; they perform seldom, only for the amuse- 
ment of their lord and his friends, and the public 
are not admitted. Years ago I saw such a dance, 
and though peculiar to Pahang as far as the Malay 
States are concerned, it is probable that it came 
originally from Java ; the instruments used by the 
orchestra and the airs played are certainly far more 
common in Java and Sumatra than in the Peninsula. 

I had gone to Pahang on a political mission 
acompanied by a friend, and we were vainly 
courting sleep in a miserable lodging, when at 
I A.M. a message came from the Sultan inviting us 
to witness a joget. We accepted with alacrity, 
and at once made our way to the astdnat a 
picturesque, well-built and commodious house on 

45 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the right bank of the Pahang river. A palisade 
enclosed the courtyard, and the front of the house 
was a very large hall, open on three sides, but 
covered by a lofty roof of fantastic design supported 
on pillars. The floor of this hall was approached 
by three wide steps continued round the three open 
sides, the fourth being closed by a wooden wall 
which entirely shut off the private apartments save 
for one central door over which hung a heavy cur- 
tain. The three steps were to provide sitting 
accommodation according to their rank for those 
admitted to the astdna. The middle of the floor, 
on the night in question, was covered by a large 
carpet, chairs were placed for us, and the rest of 
the guests sat on the steps of the dais. 

When we entered, we saw, seated on the carpet, 
four girls, two of them about eighteen and two 
about eleven years old, all attractive according to 
Malay ideas of beauty, and all gorgeously and 
picturesquely clothed. 

On their heads they each wore a large and 
curious but very pretty ornament of delicate work- 
manship — a sort of square flower garden where all 
the flowers were gold, trembling and glittering with 
every movement of the wearer. These ornaments 

were secured to the head by twisted cords of silver 

46 



THE JOGET 

and gold. The girls' hair, combed down in a fringe, 
was cut in a perfect oval round their foreheads and 
very becomingly dressed behind. 

The bodices of their dresses were made of tight- 
fitting silk, leaving the neck and arms bare, whilst 
a white band of fine cambric (about i J inches wide), 
passing round the neck, came down on the front of 
the bodice in the form of a V, and was there 
fastened by a golden flower. 

Round their waists were belts fastened with large 
and curiously worked pinding or buckles of gold, 
so large that they reached quite across the waist. 
The rest of the costume consisted of a skirt of cloth 
of gold (not at all Hke the sarong) ^ reaching to the 
ankles, while a scarf of the same material, fastened 
in its centre to the waist-buckle, hung down to the 
hem of the skirt. 

All four dancers were dressed alike, except that 
the elder girls wore white silk bodices with a red 
and gold handkerchief, folded cornerwise, tied under 
the arms and knotted in front. The points of the 
handkerchief hung to the middle of the back. In 
the case of the two younger girls the entire dress 
was of one material. 

On their arms the dancers wore numbers of gold 
bangles, and their fingers were covered with diamond 

47 



MALAY SKETCHES 

rings. In their ears were fastened the diamond 
buttons so much affected by Malays, and indeed 
now by Western ladies. Their feet, of course, 
were bare. 

We had ample time to minutely observe these 
details before the dance commenced, for when we 
came into the hall the four girls were sitting down 
in the usual* Eastern fashion, on the carpet, bending 
forward, their elbows resting on their thighs, and 
hiding the sides of their faces, which were towards 
the audience, with fans made of crimson and gilt 
paper which sparkled in the light. 

On our entrance the band struck up, and our 
special attention was called to the orchestra, as the 
instruments are seldom seen in the Malay Peninsula. 

There were two chief performers, one playing on 
a sort of harmonicon, the notes of which he struck 
with pieces of stick held in each hand. The other, 
with similar pieces of wood, played on inverted 
metal bowls. Both these performers seemed to 
have sufficiently hard work, but they played with 
the greatest spirit from lO p.m. till 5 a.m. 

The harmonicon is called by Malays chelempongj 
and the inverted bowls, which give a pleasant and 

* The attitude is that obtained by transferring the body 
directly from a kneeling to a sitting position. 

48 



THE JOGET 

musical sound like the noise of rippling water, a 
gambang. The other members of the orchestra, 
consisted of a very small boy who played, with a 
very large and thick stick, on a gigantic gong — an 
old woman who beat a drum with two sticks, and 
several other boys who played on instruments like 
triangles called chdnang. 

All these performers, we were told with much 
solemnity, were artists of the first order, masters 
and a mistress in their craft, and if vigour of execu- 
tion counts for excellence they proved the justice of 
the praise. 

The Hall, of considerable size, capable of accom- 
modating several hundreds of people, was only 
dimly lighted, but the fact that, while the audience 
was in semi-darkness, the light was concentrated on 
the performers added to the effect. Besides our- 
selves I question whether there were more than 
twenty spectators, but sitting on the top of the da'is 
near to the dancers it was hard to pierce the sur- 
rounding gloom. 

The orchestra was placed on the left of the 
entrance to the Hall, that is rather to the side and 
rather in the background, a position evidently chosen 
with due regard to the feelings of the audience. 

From the elaborate and vehement execution of 
49 D 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the players, and the want of regular time in the 
music, I judged, and rightly, that we had entered as 
the overture began. During its performance, the 
dancers sat leaning forward, hiding their faces as I 
have described ; but when it concluded and, without 
any break, the music changed into the regular 
rhythm for dancing, the four girls dropped their 
fans, raised their hands in the act of Sembah or 
homage, and then began the dance by swaying their 
bodies and slowly waving their arms and hands in 
the most graceful movements, making much and 
effective use all the while of the scarf hanging from 
their belts. 

Gradually raising themselves from a sitting to a 
kneeling posture, acting in perfect accord in every 
motion, then rising to their feet, they floated through 
a series of figures hardly to be exceeded in grace 
and difficulty, considering that the movements are 
essentially slow, the arms, hands and body being 
the real performers whilst the feet are scarcely 
noticed and for half the time not visible. 

They danced five or six dances, each lasting 
quite half an hour, with materially different figures 
and time in the music. All these dances I was told 
were symbolical ; one, of agriculture, with the till- 
ing of the soil, the sowing of the seed, the reaping 

50 



THE JOGET 

and winnovllRg of the grain, might easily have been 
guessed from the dancer's movements. But those 
of the audience whom I was near enough to question 
were, Malay-like, unable to give me much informa- 
tion. Attendants stood or sat near the dancers and 
from time to time, as the girls tossed one thing on 
the floor, handed them another. Sometimes it was 
a fan or a mirror they held, sometimes a flower or 
small vessel, but oftener their hands were empty, as 
it is in the management of the fingers that the chief 
art of Malay dancers consists. 

The last dance, symbolical of war, was perhaps 
the best, the music being much faster, almost 
inspiriting, and the movements of the dancers more 
free and even abandoned. For the latter half of 
the dance they each held a wand, to represent a 
sword, bound with three rings of burnished gold 
which glittered in the light like precious stones. 

This nautch, which began soberly, like the others, 
grew to a wild revel until the dancers were, or 
pretended to be, possessed by the Spirit of Dancing, 
hantu mendri as they called it, and leaving the 
Hall for a moment to smear their fingers and faces 
with a fragrant oil, they returned, and the two 
eldest, striking at each other with their wands 
seemed inclined to turn the symbolical into a real 

51 



MALAY SKETCHES 

battle. They were, however, after some trouble, 
caught by four or five women and carried forcibly 
out of the Hall, but not until their captors had been 
made to feel the weight of the magic wands. The 
two younger girls, who looked as if they too would 
like to be ^'possessed," but did not know how to 
accomplish it, were easily caught and removed. 

The band, whose strains had been increasing in 
wildness and in time, ceased playing on the removal 
of the dancers, and the nautch, which had begun at 
10 P.M., was over. 

The Raja, who had only appeared at 4 a.m., told 
me that one of the elder girls, when she became 
^* properly possessed," lived for months on nothing 
but flowers, a pretty and poetic conceit. 

As we left the Astana, and taking boat rowed 
slowly to the vessel waiting for us off the river's 
mouth, the rising sun was driving the fog from the 
numbers of lovely green islets, that seemed to float 
like dew-drenched lotus leaves on the surface of the 
shallow stream. 



52 



VIII 
THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 

I smote him as I would a worm. 
With heart as steeled, with nerve as 

firm j 
He never woke again 

Whittier 

IT was in the year 1876 that a man named Mat 
Aris, of no occupation and less repute, per- 
suaded one Sahit to take his wife Salamah and 
start on a journey through the jungle to a distant 
country. The interest of Mat Aris in this couple 
was a desire to get rid of Sahit and possess himself 
of the woman Salamah, for whom he had conceived 
an overmastering passion. 

The travellers began their journey at a spot many 
miles up the Perak River; their road lay along a 
jungle track, and so sparsely inhabited was the 
country they were to pass through, that they could 
not even find a habitation in which to pass the 
night. They had to look forward to many days' 

S3 



MALAY SKETCHES 

journey through the primaeval forest, the home of 
wild beasts and Sakai people, aboriginal tribes 
almost as shy and untamed as the elephant, the 
bison and the rhinoceros, with which they share the 
forests of the interior. 

Sahit and his wife started on their journey in the 
company of two brothers of Mat Aris, but meeting 
him the brothers returned. Mat Aris undertaking the 
part of escort. In the afternoon of the first day's 
march a Sakai named Pah Patin met the three, and, 
being known to Mat Aris, that worthy ordered him 
to accompany them. Pah Patin did as he was told, 
and when evening came on, as there was no dwelling 
within miles, a shelter was built in the jungle 
wherein the night was to be passed. 

It is as well to understand what a Malay jungle 
is Uke, for a good soil, well watered, in one of the 
hottest and dampest climates in the world, produces 
a forest that is not altogether the counterpart of all 
other forests. 

The reading public, no doubt, believes that the 
jungle of Darkest Africa is a place of gloom, terror 
and difficulty without parallel. It may be so, but 
few of those who know it have visited Malaya, 
and one is apt to exaggerate one's own troubles. 
Whatever gruesome peculiarities there are about 

54 



THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 

the African jungle, it seems possible for large bodies 
of men and women to make their way through it at 
a fair pace without great difficulty. In that respect 
at least it has the advantage of the Malay forest. 

To begin with there are the trees of all sizes, 
from the smallest shoot to the giants of the jungle, 
towering to a height of 150 feet. I know that is 
not excessive, but in this forcing climate there are 
an enormous number of such trees, treading on each 
others roots and crowding the older and feebler out 
of existence. These are nothing, they afford a 
pleasant shade from the pitiless rays of the sun, and 
though this mitigated light cannot by any stretch of 
imagination be called darkness, it is possible to take 
off your hat without fear of sunstroke. If it were 
only for the trees jungle walking would be pleasant 
enough. 

Under them, however, there is an undergrowth 
so thick as to beggar description. Every conceiv- 
able kind of palm, of bush, of creeper, flourishes 
there with a luxuriance, with a prodigality of vege- 
table life, that shows how richly Nature deserves 
her title of Mother. It is a curious fact, remarked 
by every one who has been brought in contact with 
the Malay forest, that a very large number of its 
shrubs, many of its palms, and most of its creepers 

55 



MALAY SKETCHES 

are armed with spikes of various length, but all of 
about equal sharpness. Some are so formidable 
that the thickest skinned beasts avoid contact with 
them, and no human apparel has been devised, short 
of armour, that will resist their powers of penetration 
and destruction. Under the creepers lie fallen trees, 
and the ground is covered with ferns, rank grasses, 
and what is generally termed undergrowth, so thick 
that the soil is often entirely hidden. It may be 
added as a minor but unpleasant detail that this 
tangle of vegetation harbours every species of crawl- 
ing, jumping, and flying unpleasantness ; myriads of 
leeches that work their way through stockings and 
garments of any but the closest texture ; centipedes, 
scorpions, wasps, and stinging flies, caterpillars that 
thrust their hairs into the skin and leave them there 
to cause intolerable irritation, snakes poisonous and 
otherwise, ants with the most murderous proclivities, 
and last, but not least, mosquitoes that, when they 
find a human being, make the most of their oppor- 
tunity. I have not exhausted the catalogue of pests, 
but only given a sample of what any traveller will 
meet in a day's journey through a Malay jungle. 
There is a wasp called ''the reminder," a thorn 
called " Kite's talons," and an ant known as the " fire 
ant." The names are as apt as they are suggestive. 

56 



THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 

To force a way through such a place is an im- 
possibility, even on all fours it could not be crawled 
through, the only means of progress is by cutting a 
path. 

No one attempts to walk through virgin forest 
unless he be in pursuit of game, or has some special 
object and the means to clear his way. All Malay 
jungle is not as thick as that I have described, and 
as the beasts sought by the sportsman naturally 
frequent the more open places, tracking is possible, 
though severe enough work even at the slow rate 
of progress necessary to enable the pursuers to 
approach the quarry without being seen or heard. 

The lower and more swampy the country the 
thicker the undergrowth, and I have often noticed 
that, where a river flows between low banks clothed 
with virgin forest, it would be almost impossible for 
even a strong swimmer to force his way out of the 
water on to the land through the thickly interlaced 
tangle of branches, rattans, and other thorny creepers 
that stretch their uninviting arms from the bank far 
over the water of the stream. 

It will naturally be asked how travellers make 
their way through jungle such as I have described. 
The reply is that there are existing tracks (not 
worthy of the name of footpaths) which have been 

57 



MALAY SKETCHES 

used for ages, originally no doubt formed by the 
passing and repassing of wild beasts, then adopted 
by the Sakais, and lastly by Malays. In other 
cases similar means of passage have been formed by 
driving tame elephants through the forest from place 
to place. For the pedestrian, especially if he be 
clad in the garments and boots of western civilisa- 
tion, progress through the succession of holes filled 
with water and mud which marks the track of 
elephants is neither rapid nor pleasant. 

That is the jungle of daylight. 

When once the sun has set darkness falls upon 
everything within the forest, and it is a darkness so 
absolute as to give to wide-open eyes the impression 
of blindness. Those who have been so unfortunate 
as to be benighted in a Malay jungle without torches 
or lanterns know that there is nothing to be done 
but to sit down and wait for day. 

Such were the surroundings in which Sahit and 
his wife found themselves compelled to spend a 
night in the company of Mat Aris and his Sakai 
acquaintance. 

Mat Aris had a house in this neighbourhood, 
and on the day following the events already narrated 
a Malay went to the Headman of his village and said 
there was a woman in the house of Mat Aris sobbing 

58 



THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 

and saying her husband had been murdered. The 
Headman went to the place and saw Mat Aris was 
there and a woman with him. Mat Aris had a 
reputation which probably induced this Headman 
not to attempt to interfere with him further than to 
keep a watch on his proceedings. 

In places where there are no roads, and often 
when they do exist, Malays live on or close by the 
bank of a river, and, on the following day, the Head- 
man observed Mat Aris and the woman in a boat 
going down the stream, here a succession of rapids 
and very difficult to navigate. The Headman 
followed by a jungle track, and getting near to a 
place called Kota Tampan, the first police station, 
he hurried on and gave the information he pos- 
sessed. 

When Mat Aris arrived at Kota Tampan he 
landed, and was at once arrested by the native 
sergeant in charge of the station, who accused him 
of murdering Sahit. Mat Aris denied the charge, 
but the woman said her name was Salamah, and the 
sergeant said he must take them both to his Divi- 
sional Headquarters at Kuala Kangsar, distant thirty 
miles or more by river. Accordingly the sergeant 
and some police entered the boat and a start was 
made for Kuala Kangsar. It shortly appeared that 

59 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the police, who were natives of India, were not very 
skilful in the management of the boat, and, as Mat 
Aris offered his services to steer and there was no 
doubt of his ability, this important post was given 
to him. Choosing a convenient place where the 
stream was both deep and rapid. Mat Aris upset 
the boat and threw every one into the water. Then 
seizing the woman, he swam with her to the oppo- 
site bank and they both disappeared. The police 
had enough to do, hampered by their uniforms, to 
get out of the river with their lives. 

For the next eight years Mat Aris eluded all 
attempts at capture. He lived in the jungle beyond 
the jurisdiction of the Perak Government, and, with 
his brothers, became the terror of the neighbour- 
hood, levying black mail on all who passed his way. 
Mat Aris was the ringleader, and even more serious 
crimes were laid at his door. 

The woman Salamah was known to be living with 
Mat Aris as his wife, and it was also known that 
she had a child by him. Of Sahit nothing more was 
seen or heard. 

Meanwhile the Government of Perak had estab- 
lished a station in the neighbourhood of the spot 
where Sahit had disappeared, and complaints of the 
lawless proceedings of Mat Aris were constantly 

60 



THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 

made to the officer in charge of it, but he was help- 
less, for the outlaw was beyond his reach. 

Eight years is, however, a long time, especially 
to an Eastern, and travellers worth robbing having 
grown scarce. Mat Aris, in the consciousness of his 
own rectitude, went to the Perak officer and asked 
for work. That mistaken step resulted in his arrest 
on the strength of the warrant issued eight years 
before. 

This time the prisoner was conveyed in safety 
to Kuala Kangsar, where he was duly tried. 

It is one thing to give information against a man 
who is free, willing, and able to resent it, and quite 
a different thing to say what you know when that 
man is in the toils. There was a witness who was 
likely to know what had happened to Sahit, and that 
was Pah Patin the Sakai, but Pah Patin did not 
speak, and Mat Aris and Salamah were the only 
other people who knew what he could say. At 
least that appeared to be so, for who else would be 
likely to know what happened at night in the depths 
of the jungle miles from the nearest habitation? 

As for Salamah, like the Sabine women, she 
seemed to have reconciled herself to her captor. 

But the strange part of this story is that, impos- 
sible as it may seem, there was a witness who 

6i 



MALAY SKETCHES 

saw what took place in that hut in the forest, 
whither the unsuspecting Sahit had been lured 
with his wife under the escort of Mat Aris. 

That witness was a Sakai man who had been 
collecting getah (gutta-percha), and, attracted by 
the firelight, noiselessly approached the hut and, 
whilst wondering at the unusual sight of these 
strangers sleeping in his wild and lonely jungle, he 
saw Mat Aris get up and stab to death the man, 
who stood between him and the woman he had 
determined to possess. 

The Sakai saw more than that, but when once 
he had disclosed what he knew, Pah Patin was 
found and induced to tell his tale, and other Sakais 
completed the narrative. 

It will be remembered that Sahit and his wife, 
Mat Aris and the Sakai Pah Patin had built a 
shelter where they proposed to spend the night. A 
fire was lighted, food was cooked and eaten, and 
the four lay down to sleep. On one side of the 
fire Mat Aris, next him Salamah, and then Sahit; 
on the other was the Sakai. 

The man and his wife slept, the other Malay 

pretended to sleep, and the Sakai fell into that 

state which passes for sleep with creatures that are 

always on the alert for possible danger. 

62 



THE STORY OF MAT ARIS 

Half an hour later Mat Aris rose up softly and 
with a krts stabbed Sahit in the throat. The 
wretched man staggered to his feet, fell and tried to 
struggle up again when Mat Aris shouted to the 
Sakai to strike him or he would kill him also. 
Pah Patin obeyed, and hit the wounded man on the 
head with a stick. ^' Then," said Pah Patin when 
at last he told the story, " there was a little life in 
him, but he never moved after I struck him." 

The woman rushed out of the hut, but Mat Aris 
followed her and brought her back to the mat by 
the body of the murdered man, and there they 
slept together, the Sakai returning to his place on the 
other side of the fire. The night was young then. 

Before daylight Pah Patin left Mat Aris and 
Salamah still sleeping by the corpse, and by order 
of Mat Aris fetched two more Sakais, and these 
three buried Sahit by the bank of the river in the 
presence of Mat Aris and the woman. 

Years afterwards, when the details were known, 
an attempt was made to find the body, but it failed ; 
decomposition in this climate is rapid, even bones 
disappear, and the river had many times flooded its 
banks, trees had gone and others grown, the land- 
marks were no longer the same, and possibly the 
exact site of the grave was missed. 

63 



IX 
LATAH 

Ofttimes he falleth into the fire and 
oft into the water 

Matthew xvii. 14 

IN the spring of 1892 I was privileged, by the 
kindness of a friend and the courtesy of Dr. 
Luys, to visit the Hospital de la Charite in Paris, 
where I witnessed some very remarkable and in- 
teresting experiments in suggestion. There were 
patients undergoing successful treatment for nervous 
disorders where the disease was in process of gradual 
relief by passing from the afflicted person to a 
medium without injury to the latter ; there was 
the strange power of hypnotising, influencing and 
awakening certain sujets whose nervous organisations 
seem to be specially susceptible, and there was the 
astonishing influence of the magnet over these same 
sujets when already hypnotised. There is some- 
thing more than usually uncanny in the sight of a 

64 



LATAH 

person filled with an inexplicable and unnatural 
delight in the contemplation of the positive end 
of a magnet, and when the negative end is sud- 
denly turned towards him, to see him instantly 
fall down unconscious as though struck by Hght- 
ning. 

The sujets (there were two of them, a man and a 
woman) described the appearance of the positive end 
of the magnet as producing a beautiful blue flame 
about a foot high, so exquisite in colour and beauty 
that it transported them with delight. As to the 
negative end, they reluctantly explained, in hesi- 
tating words and with every appearance of dread, 
that there also was a flame, but a red one of fearful 
and sinister import. 

I was deeply interested in these ^^ manifestations," 
both for their own strangeness and because I had 
in the Malay Peninsula seen equally extraordinary 
proceedings of a somewhat similar kind. 

Amongst Malays there is a well-known disease 
(I use the word for want of a better) called Idtah; 
it is far more common at certain places than at others, 
and amongst certain divisions of the great Malay 
family. Thus while there is generally one or more 
orang Idtah to be found in every kampong in Krian, 
where the Malays are mostly from Kedah, in other 

65 E 



MALAY SKETCHES 

parts of Perak it is rare to ever meet a Idtah person. 
Again, speaking generally, the disease seems to be 
more common amongst the people of Amboina, in 
Netherlands India, than those of Java, Sumatra or 
the Malay Peninsula. In both cases heredity is pro- 
bably accountable for the result, whatever may have 
been the original cause to produce the affliction in 
certain places more than in others. I can only 
speak of my own experience and what I have 
personally seen, for no English authority appears 
to have studied the matter or attempted to either 
observe Idiah people, diagnose the disease (if it is 
one), search for its cause or attempt to cure it. I 
can vouch for facts but nothing more. 

In 1874 I was sent in H.M.S. Hart to reside 
with the Sultan of Selangor. Though His High- 
ness's personal record was one of which he might 
be proud, for he was said to have killed ninety-nine 
men (sa' rdtus kurang sdtu) with his own hand, his 
State was not altogether a happy one, for it had 
been the fighting-ground of several ambitious young 
Rajas for some years. An unusually hideous piracy, 
personally conducted by one of the Sultan's own 
sons, and committed on a Malacca trading vessel, 
had necessitated a visit from the China fleet, and 
when the perpetrators, or those who after due 

66 



LATAH 

inquiry appeared to be the perpetrators, had been 
executed (the Sultan lending his own kris for the 
ceremony), I was sent to see that these ^* boyish 
amusements," as His Highness called them, were 
not repeated. The place where the Sultan then 
lived was hardly a desirable residence, even from 
a Malay point of view, and it has for years now 
been almost deserted. Bandar Termdsa, as it was 
grandiloquently styled, was a collection of huts on a 
mud flat enclosed between the Langat and Jugra 
rivers. It was only seven miles from the sea, and 
at high tide most of the place was under water. 

With me there went twenty-five Malay police 
from Malacca, and we lived all together in an old 
stockade on the bank of the Langat river. Whether 
it was the mosquitoes, which for numbers and 
venom could not be matched, or whether it was the 
evil reputation of the place for deeds of violence is 
needless to inquire, but the police were seized with 
panic and had to be replaced by another batch from 
Singapore, selected not so much on account of their 
virtues as their so-called vices. The exchange was 
satisfactory, for whatever sins they committed they 
showed no signs of panic. 

Later on I was encouraged by the statement that 
Bandar Termasa, for all its unpromising appearance, 

67 



MALAY SKETCHES 

was a place for men, where those who had a differ- 
ence settled it promptly with the kris, and cowards 
who came there either found their courage or 
departed. A story that amused the gossips was 
that, as a badly wounded man was carried from the 
duelling field past the paHsade which enclosed the 
Sultan's house, His Highness had asked, through 
the bars, what was the matter, and, being told, had 
laconically remarked, '^ If he is wounded, doctor 
him ; if he is dead, bury him." 

During my residence in the place a lady, for 
jealousy, stabbed a man of considerable note thirteen 
times with his own dagger, and sent the next 
morning to know whether I would Hke to purchase 
it, as she did not much fancy the weapon. The 
man was not killed, and made no complaint. 
Another lady, for a similar reason, visited our 
stockade one night, pushed the sentry on one 
side, and, finding the man she wanted, attempted 
to stab him with a long kris she had brought for 
that purpose. 

That was then the state of society in Bandar 
Termasa. 

I have said we lived all together in a stockade. 
It was a very rude structure with log walls about 
six feet thick and eight feet high, a mud floor, a 

68 



LATAH 

thatch roof, and no doors. Outside it was a high 
watch-tower of the same materials, but the ladder 
to it had fallen down. Of roads there were none, 
but a mud path ran through the stockade from 
river bank to village, distant some 300 yards. My 
own accommodation was a cot borrowed from the 
Hart and slung between two posts, while the men 
slept on the walls of the stockade. 

The place had drawbacks other than mosquitoes, 
for the public path ran through it, the tide at high 
water completely covered the floor, and the log 
walls were full of snakes. The state of the sur- 
roundings will best be understood when I say that 
during the many months I lived there I did not 
wear boots outside the stockade, because there was 
nothing to walk upon but deep mud, and that the 
only water fit to use was contained in a well or 
pond a quarter of a mile off, to which I walked 
every day to bathe. 

With the second batch of police had come an 
European inspector, and he and I were the only 
white men in the country. 

Amongst the twenty-five police were two men of 
the name of Kasim ; they were both natives of 
Amboina, but very different in disposition, and they 
were known among their comrades as Kasim B^sar 

69 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and Kasim Kechil — that is Kasim Major and Kasim 
Minor. 

Kasim Major was a quiet, reserved, silent man of 
about twenty-five, and I afterwards realised that 
he had a somewhat violent temper when roused. 
Kasim Minor, on the contrary, was a smiling, 
talkative, happy, and pleasant-looking young fellow 
of about twenty. They were not related to each 
other in any way. 

I used often to be away on the coast and up 
river, and on my return from one of these expedi- 
tions I noticed the men teasing Kasim Minor, and 
saw at once that he was Idtah. I questioned the 
inspector, and he told me that during my absence 
he had one day been away on duty for some hours, 
and when he returned, about 4 p.m., he saw Kasim 
Minor up a coco-nut tree just outside the stockade. 
On asking him what he was doing there, he replied 
he could not come down because there was a snake 
at the bottom of the tree. In reahty there was a 
bit of rattan tied round the tree, and, this being 
removed, Kasim came down. 

Now, it is no easy matter to climb a coco-nut 

tree ; it requires a special training to do it at all, 

and Kasim did not possess it. But the inspector 

ascertained that the other police had found out by 

70 



LATAH 

accident that their comrade was Idtahj that they had 
ordered him to climb the tree, which he had at 
once done, and that then, out of sheer devilry, 
some one had taken a bit of rattan, said, ^^ Do you 
see this snake ? I will tie it round the tree, and 
then you can't come down," and so left him from 
10 A.M. till the afternoon, when the inspector 
returned and released him. 

The time of Kasim's penance was probably 
greatly exaggerated, but that is how the story was 
told to me, and of all that follows I was an eye- 
witness. 

I made Kasim Minor my orderly, and as he was 
constantly with me I had better opportunities of 
studying his peculiarities. About this time also I 
learnt that Kasim Major was also Idtah. 

Speaking generally, it was only necessary for any 
one to attract the attention of either of these men 
by the simplest means, holding up a finger, calling 
them by name in a rather pointed way, touching 
them or even, when close by, to look them hard in 
the face, and instantly they appeared to lose all 
control of themselves and would do, not only what- 
ever they were told to do, but whatever was sug- 
gested by a sign. 

I have seen many Idtah people, male and female, 
71 



MALAY SKETCHES 

but never any quite like these two, none so sus- 
ceptible to outside influence, so ready to blindly obey 
a word or a sign. 

The kindly disposition of Kasim Minor made him 
quite harmless, but the other Kasim was rather a 
dangerous subject to play tricks with, as I will pre- 
sently explain. 

The Idtah man or woman usually met with, if 
suddenly startled, by a touch, a noise, or the sight 
of something unexpected, will not only show all the 
signs of a very nervous person but almost invariably 
will fire off a volley of expressions more or less 
obscene, having no reference at all to the circum- 
stance which has suddenly aroused attention. As 
a rule it is necessary to startle these people before 
they will say or do anything to show that they are 
differently constituted to their neighbours, and when 
they have betrayed themselves either by word or 
deed their instinct is to get away as quickly as 
possible. Children and even grown-up people 
cannot always resist the pleasure of ^' bating " a 
Idtah person ; for one reason because it is so exceed- 
ingly easy, for another because they are inclined on 
the spur of the moment to do ludicrous things or 
say something they would under ordinary circum- 
stances be ashamed of. Almost invariably Idtah 

72 



LATAH 

people of this class (and it is by far the most common 
one) are very good humoured and never seem to 
think of resenting the liberty taken with their 
infirmity. If by word or deed they commit them- 
selves (and that is not uncommon) they either run 
away, or appear to be unconscious of having said 
or done anything unusual (this however is rare), or 
they simply say, " I am Idtah;' as a full explanation 
and excuse. 

If any one present accidentally drops something on 
the floor, if a lizard falls from the roof on to or near 
a Idtah person, if the wind blows the shutter of a 
window to with a bang, a Idtah person of the class 
I speak of will probably find it necessary to at least 
say something not usually heard in polite society. 
Of this class by far the majority are women. 

I have never seen a Idtah boy or girl, but I know 
they are to be found, though the disease certainly 
becomes more evident as the subject grows older. 

It must be understood that except when under 
influence, when actually showing the evidences of 
this strange peculiarity, Idtah people are undis- 
tinguishable from others. It is sufficient proof of 
this that amongst my twenty-five police there 
should have been two men more completely Idtah 
than any I have seen before or since. 

73 



MALAY SKETCHES 

I took occasion to carefully observe the two 
Kasims. It was impossible to always prevent their 
companions teasing them, especially in a place 
where there was absolutely no form of amusement 
and all the conditions of hfe were as unpleasant as 
they well could be, but no harm was ever done, and 
I am satisfied that while influence was in any way 
exercised over the Idtah man he was not conscious 
of his own actions, and directly it was removed he 
became his reasoning other self, and the utmost 
that remained on his mind, or came to him with the 
recovery of his own will, was that he might have 
done something foolish. 

If the attention of either of these men was 
arrested, as I have said by word, sign, or a mean- 
ing glance, from that moment until the influence 
was removed, the Idtah man would do whatever he 
was told or signed to do without hesitation, whether 
the act signified were difficult, dangerous, or painful. 
When once under this influence any one present 
could give the order and the Idtah man would 
immediately obey it ; not only that, but even at 
some distance (as in the coco-nut tree incident), he 
appeared to be equally subject to the will imposed 
on his actions. 

A curious thing about both these men was that, 
74 



LATAH 

having attracted the attention of either, if you said, 
" Kasim, go and hit that man/' he would invariably 
repeat what was said, word for word, including his 
own name, while he carried out the order. When 
the person hit turned on him, Kasim would say, 
**It was not I who hit you, but that man who 
ordered me." 

I have seen Kasim- the younger, when the man 
influencing him put his own finger in his mouth and 
pretended to bite it, imitate the action but really 
bite his finger and bite it hard. Similarly I have 
seen him, in imitation and without a word being 
said, take a lighted brand from the fire, and he would 
have put it in his mouth if the experiment had been 
carried so far. Some one told him one day to 
jump into the river, and he did not get out again 
till he had swum nearly two hundred yards, for the 
stream was both broad and deep, with a terrible 
current, and infested by crocodiles. If at any 
moment you called out ^' 7o/ow^ Kasim " ('^ help ! 
Kasim "), the instant he heard it he would jump up 
and crying " Tolong Kasim," dash straight to you 
over all obstacles. If then you had put a weapon 
in his hand and told him to slay any one within 
reach I have not the slightest doubt he would have 
done it without hesitation. 

15 



MALAY SKETCHES 

I have said there was a ladderless watch-tower 
outside the stockade. The police wanted firewood, 
they were not allowed to burn the logs forming our 
walls, but at the top of the watch-tower there were 
also log walls that they were told they could burn. 
They were lazy, however, and did not see how they 
were going to get up, so they ordered Kasim the 
younger to climb up, which he did as he had 
climbed the coco-nut tree, and, when once there, 
they told him to throw down logs until they thought 
they had enotigh. I watched that operation, and 
the feverish haste with which the man swarmed up 
one of the supports, gained the platform of the 
tower, and threw down huge logs as though his 
life depended on it, was rather remarkable. I gave 
orders that the man's infirmity was not to be used 
for this purpose again, but in my absence I know 
that when more firewood was wanted Kasim went 
up to the watch-tower for it until that supply was 
exhausted. 

The path from the stockade to the village was in 
sight of the stockade throughout its length, and one 
day I noticed Kasim Minor, as he walked leisurely 
down this mud embankment, stop every now and 
then and behave in a pecuHar fashion as though he 

were having conversation with the frogs, snakes and 

76 



LATAH 

other denizens of the ditches that bordered the path. 
When he had gone half way he stopped and peeped 
up into the branches of a small tree on the road 
side, then he seemed to be striking blows at an 
invisible enemy, ran to the ditch and began throw- 
ing lump after lump of hard mud into the tree. I 
had not seen this phase of his pecuHarities before 
and could not make it out, but suddenly his arms 
went about his head like the sails of a windmill, 
and I realised that his enemies were bees or hornets, 
and that he was getting a good deal the worst of 
an unequal fight. I sent some of the men to fetch 
him back and found he had been rather badly stung, 
and when I asked him why he attacked the nest he 
said his attention was caught by things flying out 
of the tree and he was impelled to throw at them. 

I understood that the hornets flying out of the 
nest appeared to be thrown at him, and he could 
not help imitating what he saw in the best way he 
could, and so he took what was nearest his hand 
and sent it flying back. 

Kasim the elder was quite as susceptible as his 
namesake, but his comrades were a little shy of 
provoking him as they soon realised that his temper 
made the amusement dangerous. One day they 
must have been teasing him, and, when he was 

77 



MALAY SKETCHES 

allowed to recover his own will, I suppose their 
laughter made it evident to him that he had made 
himself ridiculous, for he suddenly ran to the arm- 
rack, and seizing a sword bayonet made for his 
tormentors with such evident intention to use it that 
they precipitately fled, and in a few seconds were 
making very, good time across the swamp with 
Kasim and the drawn sword far too close to be 
pleasant. I had some difficulty in persuading him 
to abandon his purpose, but after that and a lecture 
his comrades did not greatly bother him. 

I remember, however, that on another occasion 
we had secured and erected a long thin spar to 
serve as a flagstaff, but the halyard jammed and it 
seemed necessary to lower the spar when some one 
called out to Kasim the elder to climb up it. Before 
I could interfere, he had gone up two-thirds of the 
height, and he only came down reluctantly. Had 
he gone a few feet higher the pole would inevitably 
have snapped and he would have had a severe 
fall. 

About this time a friend came and shared my 
loneliness for a fortnight. He had had experience 
of Idtah people before, but the two Kasims were 
rather a revelation, and he was perhaps inclined to 
doubt what I told him they could be made to do. 

78 



LATAH 

One morning we were bathing as usual at the pond, 
and Kasim the younger was in attendance carrying 
the towels, &c. 

The bath was over, and we were all three stand- 
ing on the bank, when my friend said to Kasim : 

''Mart, kita terjun" (come, let us jump in), at 
the same time feigning to jump. K|.sim instantly 
jumped into the pond, disappeared, came up splut- 
tering, and having scrambled out, said : '' Itu tidak 
baiky Tuan " (that is not good of you, sir). 

My friend said, '' Why, I did nothing, I only said 
let us jump in and went like this," repeating his 
previous action, when Kasim immediately repeated 
his plunge, and we dragged him from the water 
looking like a retriever. 

When I was first ordered to Selangor, I thought 
it possible that some sort of furniture might be 
useful, and I took up a few chairs and other things, 
including a large roll of what is known as Calcutta 
matting. The things were useless in a place where 
the mud floor was often under water twice during 
twenty-four hours, and they lay piled in a corner of 
the stockade, and whenever a Malay of distinction 
came to see me for whom it was necessary to find a 
chair, it was advisable to see that the seat was not 
already occupied by a snake. The roll of matting, 

79 



MALAY SKETCHES 

about four feet high and two-and-a-half feet in 
diameter naturally remained unopened. 

Every night, owing to the myriads of mosquitoes, 
a large bonfire was lit in the middle of the stockade, 
for only in the smoke of that fire was it possible to 
eat one's dinner. One night some Malays from the 
village had come in, and the police were trying to 
amuse them and forget their own miseries by danc- 
ing and singing round the fire. Under such circum- 
stances Malays have a happy knack of making the 
best of things, they laugh easily and often, and as I 
have said elsewhere, they have a strong sense of 
humour if not always of a very refined description. 
Some one had introduced one of the Kasims, in his 
character of an orang Idtah, for the benefit of the 
strangers, and one of the men was inspired to fetch 
the roll of matting, and solemnly presenting it to 
Kasim the younger, said, ^'Kasim, here is your 
wife." 

Even now I do not forget the smile of beatitude 

and satisfaction with which Kasim Minor regarded 

that undesirable and figureless bundle. Breathing the 

words in a low voice, almost sighing to himself, 

^' Kasim, here is your wife," he embraced the 

matting with great fervour, constantly repeating 

'^ My wife ! my wife ! " Some one said, '' Kiss 

80 



LATAH 

4 

her ! " and he kissed her — repeatedly kissed her.. 
Then by another inspiration (I do not say from 
whence), some one brought up the other Kasim, 
and introducing him to the other side of the roll 
of matting, said, also very quietly, ^^ Kasim, this 
is your wife ! " and Kasim the elder accepted 
the providential appearance of his greatly-desired 
spouse, and embraced her with not less fervour 
than his namesake and rival. 

It was evident that neither intended to give up 
the lady to the other, and as each tried to monopolise 
her charms a struggle began between them to obtain 
complete possession, during which the audience^ 
almost frantic with delight, urged the actors in this 
drama to manifest their affection to the lady of their 
choice. In the midst of this clamour the Kasims 
and their joint spouse fell down, and as they nearly 
rolled into the fire and seemed disinclined even 
then to abandon the lady, she was taken away 
and put back in her corner with the chairs and 
snakes. 

It is a detail, which I only add because some 
readers hunger for detail, that neither of the Kasims 
possessed a wife. 

I do not pretend to offer any explanation of the 
cause of this state of mind which Malays call Idtah. 

8l F 



MALAY SKETCHES 
* 
I imagine it is a nervous disease affecting the brain 

but not the body. 

I have never met a medical man who has in- 
terested himself in the matter, and I cannot say 
whether the disease, if it be one, is curable or not — 
I should doubt it. 

I have somewhere read that individuals similarly 
affected are found amongst the Canadian lumber- 
men. 



82 



X 

THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

Le bonheur de saigner sur le coeur 
d'un ami 

Paul Verlainx 

THERE was a woman of Kelantan named Siti 
Maamih ; she was born of the people, neither 
good nor beautiful, nor attractive, nor even young, 
as youth goes in the East, but she had chosen to 
ally herself to a white man whom I will call Grant. 
I know nothing of these two, but that he had 
work far away in a Malay jungle and she shared 
his loneliness, herself a stranger in that country. 
It was apparently an arrangement formed for mutual 
advantage, like many others of a more permanent 
character. If the connection began without any 
semblance of romance, it more than satisfied the 
expectations of the contracting parties, and when 
the moment of trial came the highest affection and 
the most sacred bond could hardly have suggested 
a greater sacrifice than this woman offered. 

83 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Whilst these two were living their unattractive 
lives there came difficulties between white man and 
brown — not specially between this white man and 
any with a darker skin : the quarrel was between 
white authority and Malay resentment of inter- 
ference. Grant was not even remotely connected 
with the matter, but he was white, and under such 
circumstances a want of discrimination is not un- 
common. There followed what is known as " a 
state of reprisals." Uncivilised people, who do not 
understand fine distinctions in such matters, called it 
war. The disturbance was, however, comparatively 
local, Grant's immediate neighbourhood did not seem 
affected, and he was probably unconcerned. There- 
fore he went about his work and took no special 
precaution, fearing no attack. 

But his hut was isolated, there was only one 
other white man anywhere near him, no police 
within miles, and Maamih, who understood Malays 
better than her protector, was on the watch for 
trouble. 

To expect is, sometimes, to go half way to meet, 
and the trouble came quickly. 

One morning two Malays appeared at Grant's 

house, and, having given some trivial excuse for 

their presence and looked about the premises, took 

84 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

their departure. There was nothing unusual in 
that, and only a very nervous person would have 
seen in so simple an event any cause for alarm. 
But even ere this, prudence would have told most 
white men under similar circumstances that it would 
be well to see to their arms and keep them handy. 
Grant, however, took no precautions, as he had pro- 
bably convinced himself that none were necessary ; 
as for arms, he does not appear to have had any. 

That morning, or it may have been the evening 
before, three large boats and two small ones arrived 
in the river close by, but kept out of sight of Grant's 
hut, and he probably did not know they were there. 
They belonged to a minor chief who had no con- 
nection with the Malays then in arms. 

The day wore on. Grant had been out all morn- 
ing looking after his work, he had returned to 
breakfast, been out again, and now he was back and 
had thrown himself down to rest, glad to get under 
shelter from the oppressive heat. He was a busy 
man and his work took him out of doors, but though 
he had been about all day he had seen and heard 
nothing to arouse his suspicions. 

Seen nothing, certainly. That was not strange, 
it was a jungly place, and to be ten yards off in the 
jungle is as good, for those who seek concealment 

85 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and know the jungle, as to be in another district. 
As for hearing anything, that too was most unHkely : 
the only people he could hear from were Malays, the 
only means of communication the Malay language, of 
which Grant knew very little, and the only condition 
on which information is to be obtained from Malays 
about Malays would be an intimacy with and respect 
for the threatened man to which Grant could hardly 
aspire. There must be some very powerful influence 
at work to induce a Muhammadan, who is not per- 
sonally in danger, to tell a Christian that there is 
a Muhammadan plot against his life. Grant, at any 
rate, if he thought about it at all, could hardly 
expect that he, a new-comer, possessed friends who 
would do so much for him. 

He was still resting when, about 4 p.m., a party 
of nearly twenty armed men suddenly appeared in 
front of the house and stood some fifty yards away, 
while two of them, carrying only the ordinary jungle 
knives, came up to the house and asked Grant if he 
wanted to buy fowls. He told the inquirers to take 
them to his servant, and got up as the Malays left him. 

The men had no fowls, and instead of going to 

the servant's quarters they rejoined their companions, 

and the whole body advanced towards the house. 

At this moment Maamih appeared, and instantly 
86 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

divining that the strangers meant no good, she 
screamed out, "They are going to murder us." 
But Grant said that he and she had done no harm 
and the Malays could mean none, and, taking the 
woman with him, he went out of the house and a 
few steps forward to meet his assailants. 

These last stopped some twenty yards from Grant 
and the woman, and she said, ^'What harm have 
we done ? " The answer was " Titah " — it is by 
order of the Raja — and they told the woman to 
leave the infidel and go away. But she repHed, 
" I shall stay with him." 

Then several men said, " If you do not go, we 
will kill you as well as the white man." 

Grant may not have understood this sentence of 
death on himself, he may not have realised how 
strangely the times were out of joint, that he who 
was the enemy of no man, who had done no wrong, 
who represented no cause, should suddenly, in the 
broad light of day, hear his own death sentence, and 
in the same breath learn that he was facing his 
executioners and his account with the world was 
closed. There was no time to think : instinct said, 
" There is Death," and doubtless instinct also said, 
*^ Death is disagreeable : shun it." 

It is commonly reputed that there are people who 
87 



MALAY SKETCHES 

do not know what fear is ; to them in such a situa- 
tion instinct no doubt suggests that death is a new 
and pleasant experience. With this man it was 
different ; as he saw here and there a gun raised 
and pointed at him from a distance of a few paces, 
he probably felt the fear of sudden and violent 
death, and if he was in any way responsible for 
what he did in that supreme moment his thought 
must have suggested that these men would not 
harm a woman of their own nationality and religion, 
for he took her in his arms. 

A shot was fired, and the bullet shattered Maamih's 
left arm. Then, seeing what had happened, Grant 
put her behind him and two more shots were fired, 
one of which struck Grant in the breast, and saying, 
''They have killed me," he fell on his face to the 
ground. 

A Malay rushed up with a heavy chopping knife, 
but the woman threw herself on the body and put 
her unwounded arm over Grant's neck to save him. 
The Malay's first blow inflicted a deep wound on 
Maamih's arm and made her loose her hold ; the 
man then struck Grant a heavy blow on the back of 
the neck, but he was already dead. 

The murderers took no further notice of the 
woman, except to try and rob her of the jewellery 

88 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

she wore, but they plundered the house, and having 
decapitated the dead man and otherwise mutilated 
his body, they threw the remains into the river and 
departed. 

The woman was cared for by a countryman of 
her own until she could be removed to a hospital, 
where, after weeks of suffering, she recovered from 
her injuries. 

The motive of this outrage was simply the desire 
of an individual and his small following to wipe out 
the white man, and as Grant's isolated position made 
him a specially easy prey, he fell a victim. His 
only European neighbour was also murdered by the 
same band. I know of no similar attack being made 
by Malays on a white man within modern times, 
and I question whether there is such another instance 
of a Malay woman's devotion — not that they are 
not capable of such self-sacrifice, I think they are, 
but the circumstances necessary to call it forth very 
seldom arise. 

This woman realised what was going to happen 
before she left the shelter of the house, she had 
time after that to think, her life was not sought, she 
was told to go away and warned that if she did not 
separate herself from the white man she would share 
his fate. Moreover, she knew that no sacrifice of 

89 



MALAY SKETCHES 

hers could save him, and more than all, as affecting 
her woman's nerves, she saw face to face the men 
with murder in their faces and the means to accom- 
plish it in their hands. 

The motive which kept Maamih by Grant's side 
and which led her, after receiving the first shot, to 
interpose herself between his body and the weapons 
of his foes, must have been as high as it was 
powerful. Just as there was nothing to fear by 
standing aside (for none would have blamed her), so 
there was nothing to hope from the forbearance of 
Grant's murderers, and that she did not also lose 
her life by her devotion to him was the accident of 
an ill- directed shot and a well-aimed blow which 
sought to sever the woman's arm and reach the neck 
it protected — the neck of a dead man. 

United to the devotion which deemed no sacrifice 
too great for one she loved, was that other sort of 
courage which comes of knowledge and deliberate 
intention. No one can fail to admire the pluck 
which takes no thought of danger, the instinct which 
impels a wild beast to charge an enemy and pro- 
bably achieve thereby its own destruction. Even 
then it can hardly be said that the sensation of fear 
has never been and cannot be experienced by the 
most formidable and gallant denizens of the forest 

90 



THE ETERNAL FEMININE 

and the desert. All sportsmen know the contrary, 
and a child has put a tiger to flight by suddenly 
throwing a basket in the face of the beast. Had the 
child run away, its death was probable, whereas it 
saved the life of an old man already in the tiger's 
clutches, and yet the child's action was not the 
result of courage but of fear. 

This Malay woman, in whom the love of life was 
strong, and on whose nerves the horror and certainty 
of what awaited her must have had a terrifying effect, 
deliberately renounced safety, with that higher re- 
solve which, vanquishing fear, faces the unknown in 
the spirit described by the Persian who, writing 
eight centuries ago, has found so worthy an inter- 
preter in the author of the lines — 

" So when the Angel of the darker Drink 
At last shall find you by the river brink 
And, offering his Cup, invite your Soul, 
Forth to your Lips to quaff — 

You shall not shrink." 



91 



XI 
IN THE NOON OF NIGHT 

Her soul upheld 
By some deep-working charm 

KiRKE White 

ON the western coast of the Peninsula, more 
especially that part of it which forms one side 
of the Straits of Malacca, the shore-line is generally 
one long stretch of mud, covered with mangrove 
trees to the verge of high-water mark and rather 
further, for when the tide is up there are thousands 
of acres of mangrove whose roots and several inches 
of the stems are submerged. Beyond this forest the 
receding tide leaves great wastes of evil-smeUing 
mire, soft and clinging, in which the searcher for 
shell-fish sinks almost to his waist. 

Many rivers, small and great, find their way to 
the sea through this wide flat. At high water they 
look imposing enough, but when the tide is out a 

narrow and shallow channel is left winding about 

92 



IN THE NOON OF NIGHT 

between low slimy banks, and right and left the eye 
wanders over a desolation of glistening mud with an 
almost imperceptible slope to the edge of the distant 
sea. 

Pools of shallow water and tiny channels, through 
which the receding tide finds easier road to river 
or sea, alone break the monotony of the unsightly 
waste. 

That is as far as physical features go. The 
mud-flats have their denizens, but they are not over- 
attractive. 

First, there is the Malay fisherman, hunting for 
mussels and other shell-fish. If he is there at all 
he will be hard to see, for he pushes his little dug- 
out fifty or a hundred yards up a mud creek, leaves 
it and fossicks about, sunk above his knees in the 
mire. 

Then there are myriads of birds, attracted by the 
great possibilities of gain to the industrious searcher 
after garbage, stranded fish, and all sorts of particu- 
larly loathsome-looking and foul-smelHng dead things 
to be found in such a place. These birds are often 
strange-looking creatures, vast of size, long and lank 
of leg, snaky of neck and spiky of bill. But they 
are wary to a degree, they always seems to be stand- 
ing just in the tiny ripple of the smallest wavelets 

93 



MALAY SKETCHES 

where you instinctively know the mud and sea meet, 
and there they watch the gradually receding tide 
with melancholy abstraction, as though they took no 
real interest in the daily toil of sustaining life. 

Last, there is something else here, and, if you are 
not quite a stranger, you will look first, look longest, 
and look always for this other thing. Perhaps it is 
the extraordinary fitness of her surroundings (I say 
her advisedly), perhaps the art with which nature 
has designed the body of the saurian to make you 
think her a log, or a stranded palm-branch, a half- 
buried spar of a wrecked boat, or even a lighter or 
darker ridge of the surrounding mud — certain it is 
that as the crocodile lies there, basking in the sun 
which makes air and water and blistering sHme 
shimmer and dance before your eyes, you will not 
notice the creature, nay, even when pointed out to 
you, it is ten to one that you will not even then 
realise that she is there. 

But get nearer, speak no word and let your rowers 
pull a long and noiseless stroke till some one with a 
quick eye and a steady hand can put a bullet in the 
reptile's neck. As that great mouth suddenly opens, 
disclosing the rows of shining teeth, as it shuts 
again with the noise of a steel trap, as the horrible 
scaly claws dig deep into the mud in their agony and 

94 



IN THE NOON OF NIGHT 

the great spiked tail lashes round in fury, as the 
loathsome yellow belly slides over the ooze and you 
catch sight of the stony cruelty of the crocodile's 
eye, then you will realise what manner of thing she 
is, and you will probably conceive for her and all 
her kind a deadly horror and loathing, and a con- 
suming desire to slay the whole brood will seize you 
then and remain with you for all time. 

If it should happen to you to have to fight a 
wounded crocodile at close quarters, if accident 
brings you in contact with a man who has just lost 
arm or leg, or with a corpse out of which a crocodile 
has torn the life, your feelings towards these river- 
murderers will not be softened. 

There are Malay rivers so infested by these 
reptiles that at low water for a mile or two from the 
river's mouth they will be seen, in twos and threes 
or larger groups, lying on either bank basking or 
sleeping in the sun. It repeatedly happens that 
they knock people out of their boats and then kill 
and devour them, and in places where the creatures 
are specially numerous, if a crocodile is shot dead on 
the bank, in less than half an hour the carcase will 
be dragged into the river and a crowd of the reptiles 
will be tearing it in pieces and fighting for the 
remains. 

95 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Villages on the Malay coast are nearly always 
situated on the bank of a river ; the sea is full 
of fish and the men of a coast village are mostly 
fishermen. If the village is of any size and the 
industry of any importance, the catching of fish is 
supplemented by curing — that is, salting and drying 
them. 

The whereabouts of a village of this kind may be 
recognised by the traveller on sea or land when he 
is yet a great way off. Probably for that reason, 
and because the cleaning of thousands of fish loads 
the water with food of a kind that is specially 
attractive to the saurian, the immediate neighbour- 
hood of a fishing village is the favourite resort of 
the crocodile. 

At the mouth of a wide river on the Perak coast 
there is just such a village. It is thriving, and as 
there are a number of Chinese as well as Malay 
fishermen, it boasts a police-station. The houses 
are built for the most part on piles ; at high water 
the sea washes under them, and the means of inter- 
communication are wooden stagings from house to 
house. At low water there is mud, great stretches 
of mud, running from the edge of the mangrove 
swamp which backs the village far out to the west 
and the waters of the Straits of Malacca. 

96 



IN THE NOON OF NIGHT 

It was in the month of Ramthan, when begin 
those forty days of fast observed by all good 
Muhammadans — though so few of them know why 
they fast, or the details of the touching story which 
tells the sufferings of the Martyrs of Kerbela — that 
one night, past the middle of the month, but when 
the moon still lit up the water and made things plain 
as day, a strange thing happened at this small coast 
village. 

In it there lived a Malay revenue officer with his 
wife and child, and on the night in question these 
three, being at home, went to sleep about lO p.m. 
as was their wont. 

A slight breeze was blowing off" the sea, blowing 
against the falling tide, and the moonlight glorified 
the hideous expanse of slime till it looked like a 
limitless mirror, blending far away with the haze- 
enshrouded waters of the sea, but bordered land- 
wards by that dark fringe of mangroves, the thick 
forest forming a striking contrast to the moonlit 
beauty of the glistening shore. 

The wind sighed up the river, played through the 
great brown nets hanging up to dry, and, scarcely 
stirring the tops of the mangroves, swept gently 
towards the distant hills. 

All the village slept, except the one Guardian of 
97 G 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the Peace, who showed his devotion to duty by 
punctually striking the hours on a huge metal gong. 
The night was far advanced, when suddenly he 
heard a child crying in the house of the Malay 
revenue clerk. Then there was the noise of foot- 
steps and the voice of the man calling to his wife, 
but no answer. After a few minutes there was the 
sound of approaching feet, a shout from the Malay, 
followed by the man himself. 

The constable called out, "What is the matter, 
Che Mat ? " 

Che Mat replied, " I was asleep, but awoke hear- 
ing the child crying for its mother. I could not see 
her anywhere, and she did not answer when I spoke. 
Then 1 got up and saw at once the door of the 
house was open, but she is nowhere to be seen. 
Have you heard anything of her ? " 

The constable had heard nothing, but there was 
evidently something uncanny about this disappear- 
ance, for, in a village such as this, where the houses 
are more in the water than on land, where the path- 
less mangrove is the background, and the waters of 
the river the foreground, there are few places left in 
which to look for any one or anything with any 
chance of finding them. 

The man on guard roused his comrades, and, as 
98 



IN THE NOON OF NIGHT 

Malays do not sit down and discuss plans of action, 
some one at once made a move ; the others followed, 
and they all walked out to the last house on the 
platform, and then listened. 

" Hark ! did you not hear something ? " Yes, 
through the silence of the night, wafted on the 
incoming breeze, there was a distinct but faint cry 
from the direction of the sea. 

It did not take the men long to get down to the 
ground, and first hurrying along the edge of the 
trees, they went some distance, hearing the cries at 
intervals and ever more plainly, till it became 
necessary to strike right out across the mud. By 
this time there was no doubt about the source of 
the cries, for the voice of the object of their search 
was recognised, and that the woman was in sore 
distress did not admit of doubt. Making all the 
speed they could, sinking above their knees at every 
step, stumbling, falling, but ever pressing on, they 
saw at last to their horror, in the brilliant moon- 
light, the woman on the ground being literally 
worried by three crocodiles, each six or eight feet 
in length. 

As crocodiles go, six or eight feet is no great 
length, but to go to sleep in your own house and 
wake up at midnight within a hundred feet of the 

99 



MALAY SKETCHES 

sea, but with half a mile of mud between you 
and anything like dry land, and at the same time 
assailed by three crocodiles quite big enough to kill 
you, is calculated to shock the strongest nerves. 

After a short but exciting fight, the police beat 
off the scaly beasts with difficulty, and found the 
woman had been badly torn in legs, and arms, and 
neck. 

Whilst the men were arranging to carry her back, 
no easy matter over half a mile of soft but sticky 
wet mud and ooze, she told her tale : 

*' I was sleeping," she said, '' and had a vision. 
Two radiant Beings appeared to me and bid me 
rise and follow them, and they would show me a 
sight more glorious than is vouchsafed to mortals. 
Transported with joy, I rose and followed them, and 
whilst filled with ecstatic rapture by the companion- 
ship of these Celestial Beings, I seemed to be borne 
along without effort of my own through enchanted 
fields of more than earthly beauty. Suddenly I was 
awakened by feeling the teeth of a crocodile in my 
leg, and, to my horror, I found I was out here on 
this mud-flat half a mile from home, but close to the 
sea, with three crocodiles attacking me, no means of 
defending myself, and little hope of help. I fell, and 
the beasts tore and worried me, biting my arms, and 



IN THE NOON OF NIGHT 

legs, and neck, while I screamed for help until you 
came and rescued me." 

Well, after all, there is nothing very strange in 
that. A woman of peculiar nervous organisation, a 
somnambulist, dreams a dream and walks out into 
the balmy atmosphere of a moonlit Eastern night. 
She walks rather far, and has a rude awakening. 
That is nothing ; other sleepers have walked further, 
and their awakening has been to the life beyond the 
grave. 

Only this was curious : that while the men sank 
deep into the mud at every step, the woman had 
never sunk in at all. When found, there was only 
mud on the soles of her feet, and, though she had 
walked half a mile across the flat, and her tracks 
were plainly visible in the moonlight, they were all 
on the surface, and she had crossed the soft, unstable 
mire as easily as though it had been a metalled road. 
So the men bore her home, not wondering over- 
much, for in this thing they saw the hand of the 
Celestial Beings who guided her feet with such 
consideration, to abandon her to the ferocious 
attentions of the crocodiles. 

The woman herself, her husband, and the police 
were satisfied as to the means, but found the end 
too hard for their understanding. 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The ideal woman, the product of -higher educa- 
tion and deep research in divers subjects, suppHes 
the real clue to the phenomenon, for, when asked 
^' where the true Spirit of God is," she modestly 
replies, " I can tell you : it is in us women. We 
have preserved it and handed it down from one' 
generation to another of our own sex unsullied."* 

Doubtless — from the time when the Spirit moved 
upon the face of the waters, and, later, on the Sea 
of Galilee ; but it is more difficult to understand how 
woman, unaided, has handed anything down from 
one generation to another. 

The same idea is, however, more happily con- 
veyed in the injunction of the President of the 
Scraggsville Woman's Suffrage League to her 
husband, when ordering him to go and purchase a 
divided skirt. *' If you are afraid, pray to God for 
courage ; She will help you." 

The mere male has his uses, one of which is to 
assist the unsuUied sex to perpetuate the Spirit of 
God, and another to be within hail when there are, 
crocodiles about. 

* "The Heavenly Twins," book iii., chap. iii. 



1 02 



XII 
. VAN HAGEN AND CAVALIERO 

How loved, how honoured once, avails 

thee not, 
To whom related, or by whom begot, 
A heap of dust alone remains of thee 
Pope 

NOT many months after my first arrival in the 
East I met, in a club in Singapore, an 
Italian called Cavaliero. He was quite young, tall,, 
dark, and good-looking, of a pronounced Italian 
type. What his occupation was I have no idea ; I 
suppose he had some sort of business, but it could 
not have been very attractive or profitable, for one 
day I was told that he and a Hollander named 
Van Hagen had collected about a hundred natives 
of all sorts and conditions and had accepted service 
with the Viceroy of the Sultan of Selangor. 

Selangor was then an absolutely independent 
Malay State, so independent in fact that the principal 
and almost only employment of its inhabitants was 
fighting. 

103 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The Sultan was and is an old gentleman for 
whom I have the highest regard, and I desire to 
speak of him with the greatest respect. He had 
had his own fighting day and was tired of it, he 
wished to be left alone, that was all ; but he recog- 
nised that boys will be boys, and if the young 
Selangor Rajas took their pleasure in this way, he 
was inclined to regard their escapades with an in- 
dulgent eye, provided they did not interfere with 
his opium cum dignitate and his immediate sur- 
roundings. 

The Sultan's own sons were very much interested 
in the guerilla warfare that was then being carried 
on throughout Selangor, and the feature of the dis- 
turbances was that every chief said he had the 
Sultan's approval of his proceedings. Some time 
later I was myself in Selangor, and, as this state- 
ment was constantly being dinned into my ears, I 
took the liberty of asking his Highness what it meant. 

He promptly pointed out that each of these Rajas 
in turn came to him, stated his case, and asked the 
Sultan if that was not correct. His Highness 
always replied, " Quite correct," but, as he explained 
to me, ** benar ka-pdda dia, bukan benar ka-pdda 
kami" which being interpreted means, ** correct in 

their view, not in mine." He was evidently tickled 

104 



VAN HAGEN AND CAVALIERO 

by this happy inspiration and laughed heartily at 
his own ingenuity. 

The gossips declared that his Highness was 
always requested to give a tangible proof of his 
approval in the shape of gunpowder and lead, and 
that he gave them to ever}'- applicant with strict 
impartiality. On this point the Sultan told me 
nothing; and I was not indiscreet enough to inquire, 
but as Selangor is no more free from gossip than its 
neighbours, I put the statement down to irrespon- 
sible chatter. 

All this is, however, by the way. Certain Rajas 
held certain important strategical points from which 
other Rajas kept trying to oust them, and the fight 
waxed hottest about Klang, the principal port of 
the State, and Kuala Lumpor, the principal mining 
centre. 

As to Klang, it had just been captured by a 
notable warrior named Raja Mahdi, and its whilom 
defenders driven out when the Sultan gave his only 
daughter in marriage to Tunku dia Udin, brother of 
the Sultan of Kedah. The Sultan's son-in-law 
espoused the cause of those who had been driven 
from Klang, and, as he was created Viceroy and 
had powerful support in Singapore, matters were 
further complicated. 

105 



/ 

MALAY SKETCHES 

The Viceroy and his friends recovered possession 
of Klang and secured the friendship and assistance 
of the Chinese miners at Kuala Lumpor. 

These Chinese were led by one Ah Loi, a re- 
markable man, styled the " Capitan China," whose 
instincts were distinctly warlike and his authority 
with his countrymen supreme. 

Raja Mahdi also had friends who were acting 
against the Chinese in the interior, and supporters 
outside the State who helped him with money, 
stores, and arms, and thus the ball rolled merrily 
along. 

Dame Fortune was, as usual, fickle, and success 
was now with the Viceroy and now with Mahdi and 
his friends. The Capitan China did his share in 
his own way. He offered fifty silver dollars for 
every enemy's head delivered in the market-place in 
front of his house at Kuala Lumpor, and he told me 
himself that his man who stood there ready to 
receive the hideous trophies and pay the money did 
quite a brisk business. 

As with all Malay war, the operations languished 
and revived by fits and starts. Plenty of money 
meant plenty of men, arms, and ammunition, and 
with them a spasmodic effort would be made and 
probably a success gained. Then would follow dire 

io6 



VAN HAGEN AND CAVALIERO 

scarcity, and the other side, having raised some 
money, would in their turn gain an advantage. 

Thus the tide of battle ebbed and flowed for 
months and years, and the only plain and evident 
result was that the population of Selangor was 
rapidly diminishing, the ground in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpor town being thickly 
planted with corpses, for there the battle was always 
the hottest, both because of the Capitan China's 
special method and because of the value of the 
mines. The survivors on both sides were not only 
being reduced to penury, but their leaders were 
becoming involved in debts which only the com- 
plete success of one side followed by lasting 
peace and order could enable the victors to pay 
from the revenues derived from the tin-mines. The 
debts of the defeated would naturally be irrecover- 
able. 

While the State was distracted by all this trouble 
the Sultan still secured a comparative tranquillity by 
his diplomatic sympathy with the combatants, and 
whichever side held the Klang custom-house sup- 
plied him with funds. That was the price of his 
qualified approval. 

It was at this time that the Viceroy's party, being 
in funds, conceived the plan of raising a force in 

107 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Singapore with which they hoped to deal an effective 
blow to their enemies. 

I have said I knew Httle of Cavaliero, but of Van 
Hagen, who took command of the recruits, I know 
less. I was told that he had been an officer in the 
Netherlands army, and that he lost his commission 
owing to some breach of discipline, but that he was 
a man of birth, character, and courage. 

His heterogeneous force, composed of natives of 
half-a-dozen nationalities, went by sea to Klang, 
disembarked and made its way with guides through 
the jungle to Kuala Lumpor. There they stockaded 
themselves on a hill above the town and did valiantly 
in its defence. But the place was invested by the 
enemy, supplies were cut off, and while the force 
was daily harassed by the fire from the enemy's 
works, provisions ran short and the men were 
threatened at once with starvation and the probability 
of being surrounded and entirely cut off from their 
base at Klang, twenty-five miles distant by a jungle 
track. 

Under these circumstances, and probably moved 
by the growing discontent of their men. Van Hagen 
and Cavahero determined, ere it should be too late, 
to endeavour to make their way back to the port. 

They were all strangers in the country, and they 
io8 



VAN HAGEN AND CAVALIERO 

could find no one to guide them through the jungle, 
but their difficulties became so great that they 
decided to risk the journey as a choice of evils, and 
early one morning they set out. 

I have elsewhere tried to describe a Malay jungle, 
and the path which these men had to traverse was, 
as I know from my own experience, beset with 
peculiar difficulty, and led for a great deal of the 
way through swamp and water, where, of course, 
there was no track visible. It is not surprising that 
the party lost its way. Not only that, but weak 
from want of food, wanting in cohesion and discip- 
line, and with the knowledge that they were seeking 
blindly for a road unknown to all, a feeling of 
despair overcame many of them, and they wandered 
off in different directions never to be seen or heard 
of again. 

The main body, with Van Hagen and Cavaliero, 
after a weary day's march and no food, arrived in 
the evening, utterly exhausted, at a place called 
Pataling, only four miles from Kuala Lumpor ! 
They had been walking in a circle, and had got 
back to a point not far from that of their original 
departure. 

Patahng was held by a considerable body of the 
enemy under two Malay Rajas, and the weary 

109 



MALAY SKETCHES 

wanderers walked straight into their arms and gave 
themselves up without a struggle. 

Another story says that, at the last moment 
before leaving Kuala Lumpor, a guide presented 
himself and offered his services, which were 
accepted ; that he led the party hither and thither 
through the jungle, and in the evening, when 
thoroughly exhausted, took them into Pataling. 

I never heard rightly what became of the rank 
and file ; they may have been given their liberty 
and told to find their own way out of the State. 
For the officers was reserved another fate. 

Finding the principal defenders of Kuala Lumpor 
had withdrawn, the place was occupied without 
difficulty by those who had for so long invested it. 
The leading Chinese were made very uncomfort- 
able, but on them depended the working of the 
mines, and they were allowed to purchase their 
lives. 

I do not think this alternative was offered to 
Van Hagen and Cavaliero. They were escorted 
from Pataling to Kuala Lumpor, and, arrived there, 
they were taken out and shot. 

In excavating for the foundations of the houses 
which now form the town of Kuala Lumpor, it was 
usual to dig up a large number of skeletons, the 



VAN HAGEN AND CAVALIERO 

bones of those who had fallen during the years of 
Selangor's internecine strife. As many as sixteen 
skeletons have been discovered in digging out the 
foundations for one house. 

One day, not many years ago, two skeletons 
were thus discovered. The bones were larger, the 
figures taller, than those usually met with. They 
were the skeletons of two men face to face, and 
locked in each other's arms. 



Ill 



XIII 

THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG 
SEMAUN 



Oh vengeance ! thou art sweet 

Lewis Morris 



ON the Perak River, about fifty miles from its 
mouth, and just above the tidal influence, 
where the water is clear and shallow and the banks 
are lined with palm groves and orchards, there is a 
large Malay village called Bandar. 

More than twenty years ago there dwelt in this 
village a man named Megat Raja, married to a par- 
ticularly well-favoured girl named Meriam. The 
fact of her marriage drew her into some sort of 
notoriety, and her attractions were soon the 
gossip of the place. The gilded youths of Ban- 
dar were fired by the description of Meriam's 
charms, and one of them, a boy of good family, 
position, and means, got sight of and fell in love 
with her. 

112 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

The husband, Megat Raja, was conveniently 
called away to accompany the Sultan on a journey 
to Penang and Che Nuh, the youth aforesaid, pro- 
fiting by that opportunity, pushed his addresses 
with such fervour and success that he became the 
lady's lover. 

Late one night when Che Nuh was in the house 
of his mistress, Megat Raja unexpectedly returned 
and the first the lovers knew of their danger was 
the demand of the husband to be admitted. The 
house was a large one enclosed by a palisade, and 
Meriam thus suddenly surprised, and fearing instant 
death if her husband should discover Che Nuh, 
implored her lover to escape by the door at the 
back of the house while that at the front was being 
opened. 

Che Nuh complied, but the husband had evidently 
heard something of what had been going on in his 
absence, and, as the lover was about to descend the 
steps, he drew back seeing Megat Raja waiting on 
the ground beneath them. 

He drew back, but not before his presence had 
been perceived. 

Megat Raja called out '' Who is that ? " 

Che Nuh rephed " It is I, Che Nuh." 

The husband, drawing his kris, said ^* What are 
113 H 



MALAY SKETCHES 

you doing in my house at this time? Come down on 
to the ground." 

Mat Nuh was alone and Megat Raja was accom- 
panied by two other men, but the youth unsheathed 
his kris and went down ready to accept the chances 
of a hand-to-hand struggle. 

Seeing that Mat Nuh would defend himself, and 
knowing that he was no contemptible adversary, the 
three men hesitated. What was of more account in 
their minds was that Che Nuh belonged to a 
powerful family, and his father was one of the 
principal chiefs in the country. There was, there- 
fore, the certainty of retaliation should they kill him, 
and the uncertainty of his guilt, for Meriam was not 
the only woman in the house. As the men stood 
mutually on the defensive, Megat Raja asked him 
whom he had come to see, and Che Nuh replied that 
it was a girl in the house. Thinking to assure him- 
self on this point, the husband entered the house 
and questioned one of the servant-women, but dis- 
satisfied with what he heard he dashed out again 
determined to attack Che Nuh. 

The latter had, however, taken advantage of 
Megat Raja's momentary absence to get outside the 
gate of the pahsade, and once there he shouted for 
help and was soon surrounded by his friends. 

114 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

In reply to a call, Che Nuh bid his adversary 
come outside the gate and he would give him any 
satisfaction he pleased. 

That of course meant an internecine struggle 
between the two parties, and Megat Raja declined 
it, for the odds were now against him, and he was 
still uncertain whether his wife were unfaithful or 
not. 

On the strong suspicion that he held, his inclina- 
tion was to at least make short work of the woman, 
but here again he was deterred by the knowledge 
that her relations would certainly be revenged on 
him. He, therefore, decided on another course of 
action. On the assumption that his wife was guilty 
(and of this he became tolerably well assured), he 
treated her as though he held the proofs, divorced 
her, turned her out of his house, and declined to let 
her have any of her own possessions or to remove 
any of his. 

This action was considered a very serious indig- 
nity by Meriam's friends, and it so happened that 
she possessed a relative named Penglima Prang 
Semaun, an adherent of the Sultan's Wazir, the 
Raja Bendahara, and he was reputed one of the 
principal warriors in the country. 

Penglima Prang Semaun called upon the Chief of 
"5 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Bandar and laid a formal complaint against Megat 
Raja, demanding to know why he had taken the law 
into his own hands and treated Meriam in a manner 
to put all her relatives to shame. 

The Chief of the village of Bandar was also one 
of the great officers of State named the Orang Kaya 
Shabandar. He was a man renowned for his 
courage, was wealthy, a trusted officer of the Sultan, 
the receiver of customs, and lived at the upper end 
of the village. 

He listened pohtely to Penglima Prang Semaun, 
and when the latter wound up his complaint by 
saying he would certainly attack Megat Raja if he 
obtained no redress, the Shabandar put his advice 
in the form of this ancient saw : 

"If you have no gold, it is well to sing small ; 
if you have no pivot-guns (jingals), it is well to put 
a pleasant face on the matter ; and if you have no 
cannon, it is better to be quiet." 

The advice was meant in good part and not as a 

taunt, but Penglima Prang Semaun took it as the 

latter and retired with rage in his heart, saying 

*' It is well for you who have gold and jingals and 

cannon to tell me I have none of these things, 

but I will have my revenge of you with only a 

krisr 

ii6 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

Then he returned to his own home to think how 
this was to be worked out. 

The Penghma Prang Semaun's house was between 
those of the Shabandar, up stream, and Megat Raja, 
down stream, and he knew that he was not strong 
enough to resist a combined attack from both of 
them. Therefore he determined that force must be 
backed by cunning if he was to achieve his end. 
He concluded that his only plan was to attack the 
Shabandar, dispose of him first as the most im- 
portant, and then deal with Megat Raja at his 
leisure. 

Meanwhile, Che Nuh had expressed his desire to 
marry Meriam, but as his relatives recognised that 
such an open avowal of his liaison must lead to 
trouble with Megat Raja and his folk, they decHned 
to allow him to do this, and Che Nuh's negative 
attitude towards the lady only increased the wrath 
of her kinsman, Penglima Prang Semaun. 

I have said that this bravo, for that was his 
metier, was the henchman of the Raja Bendahara, 
the highest authority in the State after the Sultan. 
Penglima Prang Semaun, having determined to kill 
the Shabandar, felt it necessary to report the inten- 
tion to his master and, mindful of possible wrath to 
come, to ask his sanction. 

117 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Accordingly the Penglima went up river to Blanja 
where the Bgndahara lived, told his tale and asked 
for leave to kill the Shabandar. 

The reply of the Bendahara was, " If you think 
you are able to do it, go on." 

That was enough. Penglima Prang Semaun 
returned to Bandar with a kindred spirit named Haji 
Ali, another bravo of reputation as evil as his own, 
and these two worthies soon settled their plan of 
operations. 

The Sultan was at Pasir Panjang (only a few 
miles above Bandar), with a large following and a 
crowd of boats, and the Penglima and his friend 
determined to wreak their vengeance on the Sha- 
bandar on the Rdya Haft, the day to which the 
most religious Muhammadans prolong the fast of 
Ramthan. 

The day did not, however, suit, there were too 
many people constantly about the Shabandar's 
house, and the conspirators had to return home 
without effecting their purpose. 

On the following day, however, in the afternoon, 
Penglima Prang Semaun, Haji Ali, and three others, 
made a formal visit to the Shabandar, obtained ad- 
mission to his house, and found in it no one besides 
himself and a Sumatran Raja, a visitor from down 

n8 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

river. I say no one else but, as Penglima Prang 
well knew, there were in the Shabandar's house two 
aged ladies, the mother of the Sultan's children and 
her sister. 

The five men waited until they saw the Sumatran 
Raja take his departure, and in order to do this 
visitor honour, the Shabandar unarmed and un- 
attended, accompanied him to the river-bank and 
there bid him farewell. 

This was the moment for the development of the 
plot. 

Penglima Prang Semaun took leave of the Sha- 
bandar and shook hands with him. Haji Ali, a very 
big powerful man, then also took leave and grasped 
the Shabandar's hand, but instead of letting it go he 
drew the Datoh towards him, and the reply to his 
question of what this meant was a stab in the back 
from Penglima Prang Semaun's kris. 

The blade did not pierce the skin, it bent, and the 
thrust was repeated with the same result, Haji Ali 
all the while holding the unarmed man by the hand. 

Then the Penglima threw away the useless 
weapon, and, seizing another kris^ plunged it time 
after time into the helpless body of the Shabandar, 
who fell to the ground, while Haji Ali and each of 
the others stabbed him in turn. 

119 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Leaving the body lying on the bank, the men 
rushed straight back into the house, shut the gates 
of the enclosure and immediately prepared to defend 
themselves, taking particular care that the two ladies 
already mentioned should not get away. 

The news of a murder perpetrated like this is 
earried on the breeze, and for a few minutes the 
Shabandar's adherents rushed up one after the other 
to be slaughtered as they arrived by the Penglima 
and his party reinforced by their own men who had 
been awaiting the denouement. 

Then gates and doors were closed, windows 
barred, cannon, pivot-guns, and muskets loaded, and 
Penglima Prang Semaun having rifled the house 
(which contained the customs collections as well as 
the Shabandar's private property), and thus possessed 
himself of all those things which he previously 
lacked, sat down to calmly await the development 
of events. 

The plot had been cunningly conceived. The 
brutal murder of the unarmed chief was certain to be 
instantly avenged, and that would have been done 
by an attack on the house had it not been that it 
contained, besides the murderers, the Sultan's late 
wife and her sister, who were wellnigh sure to 
come to harm in the assault. 

1 20 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

The risk of that possibility deterred the Sultan's 
people, who had surrounded the house with 
stockades, and all that could be done was to prevent 
the Penglima, Haji Ali, and their men, from escaping. 
The process of starving out the besieged could not 
be resorted to, for here also the ladies would have 
suffered. 

The moment the deed was done, Penglima Prang 
Semaun proclaimed that he was merely the instru- 
ment of the Sultan's Wazir, and that he had acted 
on the authority of the Raja Bendahara. That, if 
true, complicated the case considerably, and as 
matters had arrived at an impasse, a parley was 
called, and it was arranged that the Penglima and 
his people should be given a safe-conduct to the 
Sultan at Pasir Panjang. 

Accordingly, the Penglima Prang, Haji Ali, and 
the others left their shelter and embarked in boats 
provided for them, but they took good care not to 
let the ladies, who were their prisoners, get out of 
reach. 

Arrived at Pasir Panjang, Penglima Prang at 
once sent a messenger to the Raja Bendahara to 
inform him of the state of affairs and ask his aid. 
The Bendahara responded to this appeal by taking 
boat, and, with a great following, descended the 

121 



MALAY SKETCHES 

river to Pasir Panjang. Once there, he availed 
himself of an ancient custom called tkat-diri- — that 
is, to " bind yourself " — and, accompanied by all his 
people, he went and stood in front of the Sultan's 
house with his hands loosely tied behind his back 
with his own head-kerchief, and, thus uncovered in 
the sun, he and all his following shouted dmpun 
Tuan-ku, be-rtbu-nbu dmpun — ^^ Pardon, my lord, a 
thousand-thousand pardons." 

After a quarter of an hour's waiting, while the 
air was filled with this plea for mercy, and the 
Bendahara and his company stood like prisoners in 
front of the closed house, a door opened, a herald 
bearing the Sultan's insignia appeared and cried 
out : '* Our lord pardons you, and permits you to 
enter into his presence." 

That settled the affair. The Sultan's minister 
had accepted the responsibility for what had been 
done ; he was far too great a man to be treated as 
a criminal, and, taking advantage of an old custom, 
he confessed his fault, offered himself a prisoner, 
sought and obtained the Sultan's pardon. 

Amongst those who had received the message of 
peace, and who entered into the presence, were the 
Penglima Prang Semaun, Haji Ali, and the three 
other murderers of the Shabandar. 

122 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

Now, the Shabandar had a brother, and he was 
a man of war, and the Sultan well knew that this 
method of dealing with the murderers would not 
satisfy him, so he at once created him Datoh 
Shabandar in succession to the dead man, in the 
hope that the gift of this dignity might make for 
the general peace. 

The Raja Bendahara, accompanied by Penglima 
Prang and his friends, then returned to Blanja. 

The new Shabandar had no intention of leaving 
his brother's murderers to boast of their exploit, 
and, in a very short time, he asked for the Sultan's 
permission to attack them and wipe out the disgrace 
of his relative's unavenged death. 

The Sultan said the request must be preferred to 
the Raja Bendahara, for so long as the Penglima 
Prang was in his village he could not be attacked 
without the Wazir's sanction. Application was duly 
made to the Bendahara, who replied that it would 
be contrary to custom to attack the Penglima 
Prang while living at his door, but that if they 
could get him away they might do what they 
pleased. 

The Penglima Prang was, however, far too wary 
to be lured away from safety, and matters were in 
this state when there returned from a pilgrimage to 

123 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Mecca a man called Haji Musah, nearly related to 
the late Shabandar. 

Haji Musah was at this time a rather small, spare 
man of middle age, but his heart was out of propor- 
tion to the size of his body, and when he heard 
what had recently taken place in Bandar, and how 
Penglima Prang Semaun and Haji Ali had got away 
unpunished, his anger knew no bounds. 

He promptly waited upon the Sultan and begged 
for permission to attack the Penglima, and, if 
necessary, to include in the operations his protector, 
the Raja Bendahara. 

The Sultan hesitated to give the desired permis- 
sion, but the fact that the proposal had been made 
very soon reached Blanja and the ears of both the 
Wazir and Penglima Prang. Whatever the latter 
was he could not be accused of cowardice, and he 
at once offered to anticipate an attack by making 
an expedition against Haji Musah to silence so 
arrogant a foe. 

The Raja Bendahara enraged at the idea that 

his name should have been mentioned with so little 

respect, and apprehensive that Haji Musah might 

find the means (as he knew he had the will) to 

carry out his suggestion, cordially approved the 

Penglima's proposal. 

124 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

It did not take long to collect from the neigh- 
bouring village of Lambor enough men to fill two 
boats, and, as that was all the Penglima wanted for 
his purpose, the party had started for Batak Rabit 
(Haji Musah's village) before the down-stream 
people had the smallest inkling of their intention. 
The time was specially well chosen from the fact 
that the Shabandar was absent in a remote district. 

In Japan they say, *' If you have not seen Nikko 
you cannot say gekko/^ and if there is anyone who 
knows the Malay Peninsula and yet has never 
watched the sun set across the rice-fields, when 
the ripe grain hangs heavily in the ear, his know- 
ledge of the beauties of Malay scenery is very in- 
complete. 

A wide, flat plain covered by the golden harvest, 
the rice-stalks standing five or six feet above the 
ground from which they have sucked all the water 
which nourished them in the earlier stages of 
growth. One yellow sea of yellow ears, the green 
stalks only discernible in the near foreground. 

This sea is broken by islands of palms and fruit- 
trees in which nestle the picturesque brown huts of 
cottagers, houses of wood, built on wooden piles 
with palm-thatched roofs and mat walls. 

The setting sun strikes in great beams of saffron 
125 



MALAY SKETCHES 

light across this wide expanse of grain bounded by 
distant ranges of soft blue hills. How greedily one 
drinks it all in ! and, as the Eye of Day droops 
lower, there shoot from between its closing lids 
rays of fire which tinge the glistening palms with a 
rosy effulgence, followed all too soon by the pale 
opalescent shades which proclaim the approach of 
the fast-driving chariot of night. 

A grey haze rises from the damp earth, spreads 
in thin wreaths across the darkening plain, thickens 
to a heavy dead-white vapour, and as the silver 
sickle rises over the distant hills it shines upon 
clustered plumes of dark fronds mysteriously poised 
above a motionless drift of snow-like cloud. 

On the edge of such a field was the home of 
Haji Musah. Behind stretched the rich plain, in 
front a great river, both wide and deep, its banks 
lined by groves of coco-nuts in the neighbourhood 
of villages, but elsewhere covered by forest and the 
nipah palm. 

The dwelling stood a few feet back from the 

river, and, as its owner was a man of means, the 

structure was of some size, the floor and walls of 

stout planks and a strong palisade enclosed the 

surrounding yard. The house was, as usual, on 

wooden piles, and the kitchen, also on piles but 

126 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

separated from the main building, was connected 
with it by a platform. 

It was here that Penglima Prang Semaun, Haji 
Ali, and the rest of their crew arrived one morning 
before daylight and quickly landed under the cover 
of darkness. 

The enterprise they had undertaken was a 
perilous one. Their force numbered about thirty 
men all told, they had come about ninety miles 
right into the heart of the enemy's country, and, if 
there were any failure, retreat was a choice between 
a return against the current with a hostile people 
on either bank, or a long pull to the river's mouth 
under the same conditions and then the sea. 

Penglima Prang Semaun had, however, cal- 
culated the chances, and he counted on a suc- 
cessful surprise and, if need be, the pursuit of 
those tactics which he had already, at Bandar, 
found so useful. 

Once on shore the palisade of Haji Musah's house 
was cautiously approached, and, the gate being 
locked, it was scaled, and the whole party noise- 
lessly established themselves beneath the house and 
waited for daylight. 

It so happened that the house contained only two 
men and two women — Haji Musah and his wife, 

127 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Haji Hawah, and their daughter and son-in-law, the 
latter named Haji Sahil. 

At daybreak the back door of the house was 
opened and the two women came out and went into 
the kitchen. In a moment Haji Hawah discovered 
that the space beneath the house was full of armed 
men, and with a scream she rushed back towards 
the door. Ere she could gain it, Haji Ali sprang 
upon the platform and seized one of her hands, 
while her husband, unpleasantly alive to the situa- 
tion, caught hold of the other and tried to pull her 
within the door, an effort which she seconded with 
all her might. 

A real tug-of-war was carried on for a few 
moments, and Haji AH was joined by another man. 

Local tradition says that Haji Ali experienced 
suddenly a feeling that something dire was going to 
happen, and he asked his companion to relieve him 
of his hold of the woman's hand. The man took 
it, and Haji Musah from the inside making a great 
effort drew his wife towards him, and at the same 
time, with a spear, thrust out beyond her with so 
true an aim that he transfixed her would-be captor. 
The man released his hold, fell with a groan into 
Haji All's arms, and Haji Musah, drawing his wife 
into the house and believing he had wounded Peng- 

128 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

lima Prang Semaun, shouted as he closed the door,. 
" That has wetted you, Penglima ! " 

Wetted him with blood. 

Haji Ali called to the Penglima, '^ Help me, a 
' watering ' has befallen our friend " ; a polite way 
of expressing a disaster. By the time they got the 
man to the ground he was dead, for the spear had 
struck home. 

The Penglima, furious at this sight, leapt on the 
platform, and, finding the door immovable, dashed 
open a small side-window with the butt end of a 
musket and fired into the house, but hurt no one. 

In the scufQe before the door was closed Haji 
Musah had accidentally given his son-in-law a flesh 
wound on the shoulder, and that had disabled him, 
so the defence of the position rested on one man 
alone. 

Penglima Prang Semaun now summoned Haji 
Musah to surrender, but the reply was, " I will not 
surrender." 

^' Then," said the Penglima, ^*I will riddle the 
house with bullets." 

*' Shoot away," was the reply. 

'^ I will burn the house down." 

^'Burn it," said Haji Musah, ''and do whatever 
else you like, but I will not give in." . 

129 I 



MALAY SKETCHES 

** Let us burn it," said the Penglima. But Haji 
Ali protested. ^^Are you mad," he urged, '^already 
our enemies are collecting outside, you would burn 
the house down and these people in it, and then 
what should we do ? Caught like fish in a basket, 
without walls or roof to shelter us, what will 
become of us ?" 

The wisdom of this advice was apparent, and as 
it was necessary to deal with those in the house 
quickly the leader set to work to devise another 
plan. 

An evil inspiration came to the Penglima, and he 
told Haji Ah to get Haji Musah into conversation 
again while he, having loaded with all manner of 
missiles a pivot-gun which he found under the 
house, listened attentively to the sound of Haji 
Musah's voice, and tying the gun to a post just 
beneath the spot where he thought the Haji must be 
standing, fired it. 

A large hole was rent in the floor, and, the 
various missiles scattering in all directions, one of 
them struck Haji Musah in the thigh, seriously 
wounding him and placing him hors de combat. 
His wife was also hit, but only slightly injured. 

The assailants realised the effects of the shot 
from what they heard said within and again called 

130 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

upon Haji Musah to yield, but he declined utterly 
to do so. 

His wife said, " What is the use, you are wounded 
and cannot fight, so am I and so is Haji Sahil, what 
can we do, better make terms with them ? " Haji 
Musah stubbornly declined to listen to this persua- 
sion and only said, *' Let them do their worst, I 
will not yield." 

Strange to say it was only then that Haji Hawah 
realised that her daughter was missing. She 
remembered that the girl had left the house with her 
and gone into the kitchen, but until that moment, 
what with the discovery that the enemy was within 
their gates, the struggle at the door and subsequent 
events, she had not thought of the girl further than 
to suppose she was sitting terrified in some corner 
of the never brilliantly lighted house. 

Now, however, it was certain that she had failed 
to get back before the door was closed and must 
have fallen into the hands of the enemy. 

As a matter of fact nothing of the kind had 
happened. On the first alarm, seeing the crowd of 
strange men and her mother's struggles to gain the 
house, the girl was too terrified to leave her shelter 
and had hidden herself in the kitchen. The enemy 
being all under the house when the women first 

131 



MALAY SKETCHES 

came out, no one had particularly noticed the girl 
or ever thought of entering her hiding-place. 

The moment Haji Hawah was convinced her 
daughter was not in the house, she became equally 
certain she was in the hands of the enemy, and that 
was an intolerable idea. She, therefore, besought 
her husband to offer to yield provided the girl were 
restored. This new factor in the case persuaded 
him, and Haji Musah called out that he would yield 
if his daughter were given back to them. 

At first the besiegers could not understand the 
meaning of this proposal, but light very soon came 
to them and they argued that if the girl was not 
inside the house or in their hands, she must be in 
the kitchen, and a search of that place very soon 
discovered her. 

The Penglima accordingly replied that he accepted 
the proposal and would restore the girl on condition 
her father yielded. The door was then opened and 
the girl admitted, but no sooner was she in the 
house than it was closed again and Haji Musah 
declined to give himself up. 

Shortly after, however, the loss of blood and 
pain of his stiffening Hmb made movement impos- 
sible and compelled Haji Musah to abandon all idea 
of further resistance. 

132 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

The Penglima and his friends having gained the 
house proceeded to make themselves comfortable 
and did not attempt to disturb or annoy Haji Musah 
and his family. These latter occupied a curtained 
portion of the principal room, and underneath their 
only window a sentry was placed night and day. 

Meanwhile the Shabandar, informed by messenger 
of what had taken place, hurried back to the neigh- 
bourhood and reinforced the adherents of Haji Musah, 
who so far had contented themselves with building 
and occupying stockades to command Haji Musah's 
house. 

The Penglima's tactics were again completely 
successful, and as it was impossible to fire on the 
captors without danger to their imprisoned friends 
the Shabandar, who now commanded the investing 
force, set himself to devise a plan whereby he might 
gain his end by craft. 

The Penglima's men occupied the house and one 
or two small stockades close by it. The Shabandar's 
party had built a series of enclosing works which 
practically cut off escape to landward. In front 
was the river and here again, both up stream and 
down, there lay a small fleet of guard-boats. 

The Penglima's own two boats were chained to 
the landing-stage where they were safe, for it would 

133 



MALAY SKETCHES 

have been impossible to seize them without being 
exposed to fire from the house, to which no reply 
could be made. 

A month went by, and in that time Haji Musah, 
his wife, and son-in-law had fairly recovered from 
their injuries. Meanwhile the Shabandar, by means 
of spies, learned that the prisoners occupied a side 
of the house where there was but one window, and 
that always guarded at night by the same man. 
Through this man there was the best chance of 
escape for the prisoners, if only he could be bought 
over. 

This sentry, who had some authority over part of 
the band, was a foreigner, he was getting tired of 
the game and probably did not altogether hke the 
outlook or see how his party was to turn the 
situation to their own advantage. At any rate 
communications were opened between the Shabandar 
and him, and for a sum of two thousand dollars he 
promised to get the prisoners out of the window 
and through the lines to their friends. 

In the dead of a dark night (and moonless Eastern 
nights can be black as a sepulchre) he assisted the 
four prisoners to make their escape through the 
window, while the Penglima, Haji AH, and a number 
of their men slept peacefully on the other side of 

134 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

the sheltering curtain that gave privacy to the 
women. 

Guided by the traitor, their movements hidden in 
Cimmerian darkness, the Httle party made its way 
in safety to the friendly shelter of the Shabandar's 
stockade. He was expecting them, and he had also 
prepared an unpleasant surprise for the cuckoos in 
temporary occupation of their stolen nest. 

Penglima Prang Semaun and his friends were 
awakened from sleep by the banging of jingals and 
muskets and a hail of various missiles. 

A moment's search showed that the prisoners had 
escaped, and the Penglima instantly realised that he 
was in the toils. 

He had already shown that he was a man of 
resource, and his presence of mind did not desert 
him in this dangerous crisis. The darkness alone 
protected them, and that would not last ; moreover, 
he could not tell at what moment his position might 
not be rushed. It was clear that for them was 
reserved the fate of those who when they got up in 
the morning were all dead men. 

The Penglima called his followers together, 
explained the situation and its urgency, pointed out 
the choice that lay before them — an attempt to pass 
the enemy's stockades under cover of the night or to 

135 



MALAY SKETCHES 

min the gauntlet of the guard-boats, where capture 
was, as he said, certain. 

The men of the band, the wretched Lambor con- 
tingent, elected, as the Penglima had meant they 
should do, to try and force their way through the 
enemy's lines, never thinking that if they succeeded 
they would only reach a pathless jungle swamp, 
where they, strangers in that part of the country, 
must either perish miserably or return to the tender 
mercies of the investing foe. 

Of these deplorable eventualities they took no 
thought ; there was little time for hesitation ; tight- 
ening the grasp upon their weapons they went out 
into the night, and in a few moments the shouts 
from the surrounding stockades showed that their 
intention had been discovered. 

This was exactly what Penglima Prang Semaun 
had expected ; he had created a diversion, and 
seizing his opportunity, accompanied by Haji All 
and a few of his particular associates, he made for 
the river and got into one of his boats, cast off and 
pulled out into the stream. 

A very wily man was the Penglima. Every one 
in the guard-boats was on the alert, the firing and 
shouts from the shore had warned them that the fox 
was being hunted in the covert, and the pack were 

136 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

after him in full cry. Still there was just a trifle of 
uncertainty about it, and that was the Penglima's 
one chance of salvation. 

The slightest hesitation now, the smallest of false 
steps, and neither the Penglima nor any of those with 
him would ever see the dawn. He knew it well 
enough, and as he ordered those who had taken the 
oars to pull out boldly into the stream, he grasped 
the helm and steering straight up the middle of the 
river, against the tide, he gave orders that no man 
should speak, undertaking the virhole responsibility 
himself. 

It was still so dark that no one could see quite 
whence this boat came, or distinguish who was in it, 
but as it moved with plenty of noise and no attempt 
at concealment right towards the line of guard-boats, 
some one called out, *^ Who goes there ? " 

"It is I," replied the Penglima, '*I bring the 
Shabandar's orders to you to keep a good look-out, 
they are attacking the Penglima Prang, and as he 
can't hold out he will probably try to escape by the 
river. Be ready for him, I am going to warn the 
boats down stream," and turning round the craft 
disappeared towards the other line of river- 
sentinels. 

No one of course suspected a ruse under such a 
137 



MALAY SKETCHES 

bold disguise as that, and, pulling straight for the 
down-stream boats, steering right on and through 
them, the Penglima called out, *^ Jaga-jaga^ ^ be on 
your guard,' the Shabandar sends orders to watch 
for the Penglima Prang Semaun, he is trying to 
escape, I am warning all the boats." 

No one could distinctly see who this messenger 
was, or even catch more than a shadowy glimpse of 
a spectral craft as she glided through the line, and 
in the excitement of expectation, the noise of firing 
and rival battle-shouts on shore, no one took special 
heed as to which way the messengers went, or 
whether that was the sound of their oars echoing 
faintly in the distance. 

The Shabandar on his part made no long tarry- 
ing, but eager to revenge the murder of his brother, 
and feeling that at last the Penglima and Haji Ali 
were in his power, he determined to meng-dmoky to 
rush the house at once without waiting for day- 
light. 

Whilst summoning his men for the assault, he 
n&ai^ the cries that told him the besieged were 
makiiig an attempt to break through his stockades, 
and without further delay he dashed into Haji 
Musah^ house, only to find it empty, the renowned 
PengHma and his amiable friend gone, and with 

138 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

them a considerable quantity of dollars and every- 
thing that was both valuable and easily portable. 

Torches and an examination of the muddy ground 
soon established the direction taken, and the missing 
boat, coupled with the missing property, convinced 
the least astute that by this way went the Penglima 
Prang Semaun. 

Many shouted questions from the bank drew forth 
many assurances from those on the water that no 
enemy had passed that way. The evidence to the 
contrary was, however, all too plain, and as the 
boats one by one came up to the landing-place, and 
the watchers told their tale, it became evident that 
once again the Penglima Prang Semaun had justified 
his reputation for both daring and resource. 

He had made for the sea, his party did not 
number ten, and they were in one boat. There 
was still time to overtake or intercept them at the 
river's mouth, and, as the grey light of dawn began 
to lift the veil of mist and the freshening breeze 
swept in chilly gusts over the water, a fleet of boats- 4^ 
set off to search the creeks and backwaters, while"" 
others had orders to pull straight to the river's 
mouth, and there take line and see that none passed 
out to sea. 

The Penglima meanwhile had wasted no time. 
139 



MALAY SKETCHES 

'Twixt the devil behind and the deep sea in front, 
he had no difficulty in determining which way lay 
safety ; but he also realised that it could not be an 
hour, it might be only a few minutes before his ruse 
would be discovered, and with his crew he could 
not hope to reach the sea without being overtaken. 
The rowers needed little exhortation to strain every 
nerve, and after a few miles had been travelled, the 
boat was forced through heavy overhanging branches 
into an all but imperceptible creek, so narrow the 
entrance and so thoroughly concealed that no one 
would dream of its existence. The boat could only 
be got a few yards up this ditch, and the party, 
leaving it entirely hidden, ensconced themselves in 
a tangled mass of jungle foliage from which they 
commanded a view of the river. 

Here the fugitives lay all day, and watched the 
boats of their enemies pass by intent on the fruitless 
search. 

It was not a pleasant place nor did they spend an 

altogether happy day, for they were not yet out of 

the wood, indeed the chances of escape were still 

decidedly against them, but for the moment they 

were safe, and whatever was to come could not be 

worse than the situation from which their leader 

had already extricated them. 

140 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

Whilst the PengHma was running the gauntlet 
of the guard-boats his late companions, the men of 
Lambor, some twenty or thirty in number, were 
having a worse experience on shore. 

Being a large party and in their haste not over- 
cautious, they were, of course, discovered as they 
tried to break through the line of stockades. Some 
were shot, others were speared and krised in hand- 
to-hand encounters, while a few got away to the 
forest under cover of the darkness. But when 
these stragglers fully realised that it was a choice 
between the enemy and painful wandering in a 
swampy and well-nigh impenetrable jungle, with 
the prospect of starvation and a lingering death, they 
chose rather to return to the light and a speedier 
reckoning. 

None of this band returned to Lambor, and if 
they sought their fate and made an unprovoked 
attack upon Haji Musah it is not altogether sur- 
prising that to this day there is no wasted affection 
between the people of Lambor and the Lower Perak 
Chiefs. 

All through that sultry day, as one by one these 
doomed men appeared from the jungle fastness and 
went down before the weapons of their adversaries, 
waiting tirelessly expectant in the certainty that no 

141 



MALAY SKETCHES 

refuge would be found in those inhospitable depths, 
the Penglima and his little band lay close in their 
concealment and longed for sheltering night. 

All day long the Shabandar's boats passed hither 
and thither, and with the nightfall many appeared to 
abandon the search and returned on the rising tide. 

Then an hour or two of the new-born moon, and 
after that thick darkness. 

The PengHma and his friends had regained their 
boat, and as, about midnight, the tide began to ebb, 
the vessel was pushed noiselessly out into the river 
and bracing themselves for a final effort the rowers 
gripped their oars, stiffened their backs and put 
their whole strength into the work before them. 

The river as it approaches the sea grows wider 
at every bend, the searchers were exhausted and 
asleep, or had already returned up-stream, the 
night was dark and the fugitives were unmolested 
until, between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., in the last reach, 
they saw a line of boats guarding the river's mouth. 

There were wide intervals between each vessel, 
but even in that uncertain light it was impossible 
for a boat to run this blockade without being seen. 

At this final juncture the Penglima's Familiar did 

not desert him. 

Of course the earth ought to have opened and 
142 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAUN 

swallowed up this hardened criminal as it did Korah, 
Dathan, Abiram, and all their company ; he ought 
to have been shot or drowned or speared if he were 
not being reserved for hanging. At any rate this 
was an excellent opportunity for getting rid of two 
hardened villains, and a few other passably wicked 
men. The Lambor people, whose crimes were as 
snow compared to those of these two arch- criminals, 
had all met with violent deaths and no miracle, not 
even so much as a small streak of luck, like falling 
into a well and being tended by a beautiful maiden, 
had saved the life of one of them. 

Why was it then that, as these cold-blooded 
assassins cowered together and wondered how they 
were going to elude the vigilance of their enemies, 
a palpable miracle was wrought to save their miser- 
able skins ? 

It cannot be said that anything very unusual hap- 
pened, because the thing is of common occurrence, 
but it was certainly thoughtfully arranged that at 
that moment there should sail round the bend of the 
river, in the strongest flow of the ebb-tide (now of 
course slackening), an enormous mass of floating 
palms, a very island of foliage broken away from 
some undermined bank and drifting majestically to 
the wider waters of the sea. 

143 



MALAY SKETCHES 

If these great clumps of root and branch and 
foliage may be seen sailing every day down a 
Malay river into the Straits of Malacca, this parti- 
cular island was so gigantic, that in size at least it 
was miraculous. It is possible that to another man 
the passing drift would have suggested nothing, but 
the PengHma Prang Semaun was on such terms 
with Fortune that he knew exactly the psycholo- 
gical moment at which to take her. Here he 
remembered that the Malays call these floating 
islands dpongy and that boats know very much better 
than to get in their way. His craft then he 
promptly steered right into the back of this Satan- 
sent refuge, and, forcing it in amongst the palms and 
covering it as well as was possible, he calmly sat 
down and awaited the issue. ^ 

The island sailed slowly along, and when the huge 
mass got near enough to the guard-boats for them 
to reahse their danger, there was a deal of shouting 
and pulling of anchors, kicking up sleepy boatmen 
and frantic struggles to avoid this river Juggernaut. 

So passed the Penglima Prang Semaun ; not to 
the vales and Queens of Avilion, but to the open 
sea, from sore stress to safety, from an earthly 
death to an earthly life. 

One can almost hear him chuckle as he sails 
144 



THE PASSING OF PENGLIMA PRANG SEMAU 

through that last danger and watches his enemies'' 
efforts to get back into their places. 

Malays do not pine for manual labour, they had 
already had more than enough of it, and as they 
were now being towed idly along, they lay down ta 
sleep, vaguely wondering, in that moment of tired 
but delicious drowsiness, what occult powers this 
leader possessed to secure at such a moment the 
powerful help of this great leviathan, under whose 
green and shady sails they were being wafted to 
safety and ^* the haven where they would be." 

A day or two of pleasant coasting, a walk across 
country, and Penglima Prang Semaun, with Haji 
Ali and a considerable booty, arrived safely at Blanja 
and received the congratulations of his master, the 
Raja Bendahara. 

We read that when it was the fashion for knights 
to devote themselves to the service of distressed 
damsels, they wrought many startling deeds, which 
cannot always be satisfactorily explained without 
recognising that devotion in so good a cause was 
sometimes supernaturally aided. 

Unfortunately, the practice has fallen into desue- 
tude ; let us hope it is because the damsels of the 
nineteenth century are never in distress, want no 
assistance, or despise that of the mere man. 

145 K 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Malays are perhaps, in some respects, a few 
hundred years behind the age, and I like to think 
that in this veracious story the Penglima Prang 
Semaun made his first appearance as the champion 
of a lady in distress. 



146 



XIV 
BER-HANTU 

Striving to reach the mystic source 
of things, the secrets of the earth 
and sea and air 

L. Morris 

WE could all see the tunggul merah, the crimson 
streak which boded the death of the King. 
Looking from the top of our green-terraced hill 
across the clear wide river late one afternoon, this 
curious phenomenon appeared in the sky, above the 
last spur of a picturesque range of mountains which 
separates the valleys of two considerable streams 
whose united waters flow into the Straits of 
Malacca. 

Standing on the right bank of the river, a stretch 
of level land hes between the opposite bank and the 
foot of this range, and the wealth of foliage hides 
from view the houses, orchards, and ricefields which 
cover that fertile plain. But the Sultan's house, a 
palm-thatched wooden structure, three houses on 

147 



MALAY SKETCHES 

piles joined together by short platforms after the 
accepted Malay pattern, stands out clearly enough, 
rather down-stream than opposite the point of 
view. 

The crimson portent is not visible for long, and 
we realise that, whatever it means, it is accounted 
for by the segment of a rainbow shining through a 
bank of low clouds which obscure the rest of the 
*' arch of heaven," and so blur the prismatic colours 
that nothing is clearly discernible but a short column 
of flame, all the more striking for its dull grey back- 
ground. The tradition of ill-omen is of ancient 
origin, but the fact that the Sultan now lies griev- 
ously ill gives an air of probability to the gossip of 
the prophets. 

That evening, as we sat at dinner, we were 
suddenly startled by the cry of the banshee. Up 
till that moment we had none of us had any personal 
acquaintance with the banshee, but this was it sure 
enough. A long-drawn-out distressing wail, as of 
a lost child, repeated at uncertain intervals, now 
here now there, first on one side of the house and 
then on the other, at one moment unpleasantly close, 
and the next a piteous little half-choked sob in the 
distance. Without any doubt this was the banshee, 
and as the moonlight was now streaming fitfully 

148 



BER-HANTU 

through the clouds across the white pillars of the 
verandah, we thought we might have the good 
fortune to see this harbinger of doom. 

We walked out on to the moonlit terrace, and the 
beauty of the night was so intense that one felt it as 
through a new sense. 

The hill on which the house stood was cut into 
a series of terraces, and the highest of these, a wide 
lawn of velvety grass, was surrounded by tall graceful 
coco-nut trees, not close together but each standing 
alone with its spiky leaves clearly delineated against 
the sky. 

Overhead a moon shedding that wonderful soft 
light only seen in the East, where atmosphere, 
foliage, and all the surroundings seem specially 
designed to make the ascendancy of the Queen of 
Night superbly beautiful. 

The exquisite feathery fronds of the bamboo, 

bending in graceful curves, with each leaf clearly 

defined against a background of grey-blue sky ; a 

dozen varieties of palms, from the lofty coco-nut 

and the stately jagary to the thick clumps of bertanij 

like gigantic ferns ; picturesque groups of flowering 

trees and shrubs on terrace after terrace, carry the 

eye down to the shimmering gleam of the wide 

river on which the moonlight falls lovingly, throwing 

149 



MALAY SKETCHES 

into greater contrast the deep shadows that lie under 
the overhanging foliage of the banks. Four miles 
of glistening water, then the river narrows and fades 
into the mist-enshrouded forest. 

Close beneath us twinkle the lights of the village, 
the houses spreading from river-brink to the high 
ground which rises abruptly on our left. In front 
and on either side, range after range of jungle- 
covered hills, from fifteen hundred to several thou- 
sands of feet in height. There is a luminous haze 
over all distant objects, giving the idea of indefinite 
height and distance, making all things vague and 
unsubstantial, yet infinitely satisfying that other 
sense which only awakes under the influence of 
perfect beauty. 

The extraordinary charm of this scene intoxicated 
us as with draughts of nectar, and in that enravish- 
ment kings, omens, and ghostly warnings were 
forgotten. 

But hark ! Yes, there is the cry, wailing in the 
distance — now much nearer, and now — before our 
very eyes the banshee itself! 

Sailing slowly through the air between the 
feathery leaves of the palms, hke a lost soul wend- 
ing its uncertain, purposeless way through the 
balmy Eastern night, was a creature with heavy 

150 



BER-HANTU 

dark wings, a head disproportionately large, and 
horns, veritable horns ! As it slowly passed and 
moaned its childlike plaint, no reasonable being 
could doubt that he had heard and seen the mes- 
senger of death. 

That weird apparition, sobbing its fateful cry, 
broke the spell under which we had stood enthralled, 
and though we felt that the King's fate was sealed, 
that did not prevent us from returning to dinner. 

Just after midnight a scared Malay came to say 
that it was feared the Sultan was dying. I hurried 
down the hill, took boat across the river, and, 
stumbling along the bank, reached the house where 
the sick man lay. 

I entered upon a peculiar scene. I said the 
building was in three parts, the first a sort of ante- 
room, beyond which strangers of inferior rank did 
not in ordinary circumstances pass ; then came the 
principal structure, which consisted of one large 
room, wooden pillars dividing off verandahs on 
either side, while the third house was exclusively 
devoted to women, and attached to it was an ex- 
crescence forming the kitchen. 

The unsteady light of several lamps and many 
candles showed that both the centre and ante-rooms 
were full of people sitting on the mats which covered 

151 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the floor. There must have been between one and 
two hundred present, and I noticed that there were 
about equal numbers of men and women, and all the 
principal Malays of the neighbourhood were there. 
The curtains which usually divided the centre room 
were up, but on one side there was evidently a bed, 
screened by patchwork hangings, and there I con- 
cluded His Highness lay. 

It was plain from the preparations that, despairing 
of effecting a cure by native medicines administered 
by native doctors, it was intended to try a little 
witchcraft and have a performance of what is called 
Ber-hantu. That seemed to me to fall in very well 
with the iunggul merah and the banshee, and I was 
therefore quite prepared for the raising of the Devil 
or any other uncanny manifestation. 

I may as well say here that hantu is a ghost, 
devil or spirit, and ber-hantu means to devily to raise 
the devil, or, at any rate, to engage in something as 
nearly akin to a witches' revel on the Brocken as 
Malay traditions and surroundings will permit. It 
is a treatment commonly resorted to in Perak when 
other remedies fail. When, however, the friends of 
the patient decide that the time has arrived for ber- 
hantu^ nothing will satisfy them but to have it, and 

if the sick man or woman dies during the perform- 

152 



BER-HANTU 

ance, there is still the satisfaction of knowing that 
everything was done for them which love and skill 
could devise, and the issue was with God. La- 
illahd il- Allah, Muhammad Rasul- Allah — " There is 
but one God, and Muhammad is His Prophet." 

This pious confession of faith has, however, 
nothing to do with the ber-hantu; it comes in after- 
wards when the seal of death is so evidently on the 
lips of the sufferer that his friends cease to call on 
the Devil, and commend the soul of the dying man 
to God. The ber-hantu is, of course, a survival of 
prae-Islam darkness, and the priests abominate it, 
or say they do ; but they have to be a little careful, 
because the highest society affects the practice of 
the Black Art. 

To return to the King's house. In the middle 
of the floor was spread a puddal, a small narrow 
mat, at one end of which was seated a middle-aged 
woman dressed like a man in a short-sleeved 
jacket, trousers, a sarong, and a scarf fastened 
tightly round her waist. At the other end of the 
mat was a large newly-lighted candle in a candle- 
stick. Between the woman and the taper were two 
or three small vessels containing rice coloured with 
turmeric, parched padi, and perfumed water. An 
attendant sat near at hand. 

153 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The woman in male attire was the Pdwang, the 
Raiser of Spirits, the Witch, not of Endor, but of 
as great repute in her own country and among her 
own people. In ordinary life she was an amusing 
lady named Raja Ngah, a scion of the reigning 
house on the female side and a member of a family 
skilled in all matters pertaining to occultism. In a 
corner of the room were five or six girls holding 
native drums, instruments with a skin stretched 
over one side only, and this is beaten usually with 
the fingers. The leader of this orchestra was the 
daughter of Raja Ngah. 

Shortly after I sat down, the proceedings began 
by the Pdwang covering her head and face with a 
silken cloth, while the orchestra began to sing a 
weird melody in an unknown tongue. I was told 
it was the spirit language ; the air was one specially 
pleasing to a particular Jin^ or Spirit, and the 
invocation, after reciting his praises, besought him 
to come from the mountains or the sea, from under- 
ground or overhead, and relieve the torments of the 
King. 

As the song continued, accompanied by the 
rhythmical beating of the drums, the Pdwang sat 
with shrouded head in front of the lighted taper, 
holding in her right hand against her left breast a 

154 



BER-HANTU 

small sheaf of the grass called daun sambau tied 
tightly together and cut square at top and bottom. 

This chddak she shook, together with her whole 
body, by a stiffening of the muscles, while all eyes 
were fixed upon the taper. 

At first the flame was steady, but by and by, as 
the singers screamed more loudly to attract the 
attention of the laggard Spirit, the wick began to 
quiver and flare up, and it was manifest to the 
initiated that the Jin was introducing himself into 
the candle. By some means the Pdwangj who was 
now supposed to be *' possessed " and no longer 
conscious of her actions, became aware of this, and 
she made obeisance to the taper, sprinkling the 
floor round it with saffron-coloured rice and per- 
fumed water ; then, rising to her feet and followed 
by the attendant, she performed the same ceremony 
before each male member of the reigning family 
present in the room, murmuring all the while a 
string of gibberish addressed to the Spirit. This 
done, she resumed her seat on the mat, and, after a 
brief pause, the minstrels struck up a different air, 
and, singing the praises of another JiUy called upon 
him to come and relieve the King's distress. 

I ascertained that each Malay State has its own 
special Spirits, each district is equally well provided, 

155 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and there are even some to spare for special indivi- 
duals. In this particular State there are four prin- 
cipal/my they are the Jin ka-rdja-an, the State 
Spirit — also called Junjong dunia uddra — Supporter 
of the Firmament ; Mdia uddra y the Spirit of the 
Air; Mahkota si- raja Jin, the Crown of Royal 
Spirits ; and SHan AH. 

These four are known as Jin druah, Exalted 
Spirits, and they are the guardians of the Sultan 
and the State. As one star exceeds another in 
glory, so one Jin surpasses another in renown, and 
I have named them in the order of their greatness. 
In their honour four white and crimson umbrellas 
were hung in the room, presumably for their use 
when they arrived from their distant homes. Only 
the Sultan of the State is entitled to traffic with 
these distinguished Spirits ; when summoned they 
decHne to move unless appealed to with their own 
special invocations, set to their own pecuhar n^usic, 
sung by at least four singers and led by a Beduan 
(singer) of the royal family. The Jin ka-rdja-an is 
entitled to have the royal drums played by the State 
drummers if his presence is required, but the other 
three have to be satisfied with the instruments I 
have described. 

There are common devils who look after common 
156 



BER-HANTU 

people : such as Hantu Songkei^ Hantu Maldyu and 
Hantu Elian; the last the "Tiger Devil/' but out 
of politeness he is called '' Blian," to save his 
feelings. 

Then there is Kemdla ajdib, the " Wonderful 
Jewel," Israngf Raja Ngah's special familiar, and a 
host of others. Most hantu have their own special 
PdwangSj and several of these were carrying on 
similar proceedings in adjoining buildings, in order 
that the sick monarch might reap all the benefits to 
be derived from a consultation of experts, and, as 
one spirit after another notified his advent by the 
upstarting flame of the taper, it was impossible not 
to feel that one was getting into the very best 
society. 

Meanwhile a sixteen-sided stand, about six inches 
high and shaped like this diagram, had been placed 
on ,the floor near the Pdwan^s 
mat. The stand was decorated 
with yellow cloth ; in its centre 
stood an enormous candle, 
while round it were gaily de- 
corated rice and toothsome 
delicacies specially prized by Jin, There was 
just room to sit on this stand, which is called 
Petrdna panchalogam (meaning a seat of this par- 

157 




MALAY SKETCHES 

ticular shape), and the Sultan, supported by many 
attendants, was brought out and sat upon it. 
A veil was placed on his head, the various vessels 
were put in his hands, he spread the rice round the 
taper, sprinkled the perfume, and having received 
into his hand an enormous chddak of grass, calmly 
awaited the coming of the Jin Ka-rdja-an, while the 
minstrels shouted for him with all their might. 

The Sultan sat there for some time, occasionally 
giving a convulsive shudder, and when this taper 
had duly flared up and all the rites had been per- 
formed, His Highness was conducted back again to 
his couch, and the Pdwang continued her minis- 
trations alone. 

Whilst striding across the floor, she suddenly fell 
down as though shot, and it was explained to me 
that Israng, the spirit by whom she was possessed, 
had seen a dish-cover, and that the sight always 
frightened him to such an extent that his Pdwang 
fell down. The cause of offence was removed, and 
the performance continued. 

There are other spirits who cannot bear the 
barking of a dog, the mewing of a cat, and so on. 

Just before dawn there was a sudden confusion 
within the curtains which hid the Sultan's couch ; 
they were thrown aside, and there lay the King, to 

158 



BER-HANTU 

all appearance in a swoon. The Jin Ka-rdja-an 
had taken possession of the sick body, and the mind 
was no longer under its owner's control. 

For a little while there was great excitement, and 
then the King recovered consciousness, was carried 
to a side verandah and a quantity of cold water 
poured over him. 

So ended the seance. 

Shortly after, the Sultan, clothed and in his right 
mind, sent to say he would like to speak to me. 
He told me he took part in this ceremony to please 
his people and because it was a very old custom, 
and he added, " I did not know you were there till 
just now ; I could not see you because I was not 
myself and did not know what I was doing." 

The King did not die, after all — on the contrary, 
I was sent for twice again because he was not 
expected to live till the morning, and yet he cheated 
Death — for a time. 

That reminds me of the banshee. I saw it sitting 
in a Malay house some months later, and they told 
me the boys had caught it, that it was an owl, and 
its name was Toh ka-tampL It had very round, 
yellow eyes, and there was no mistake about the 
horns. It seems that with Malays it is an ill- 
omened bird, the herald of misfortune and death, 

159 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and it shares this reputation with two other owls, 
which are called respectively Tumbok Idrong, that is 
^'Nail the coffin/' and Chdrek ka/an, *' Rend the 
cloth for the shroud." Toh ka-tampi means '^ Old- 
man-winnow- the-rice-for-the-burial- feast." The 
names are rather gruesome, and are said to be 
suggested by the peculiar cries of these "ghost 
birds." 



i6o 



XV 
THE KING'S WAY 

We know what Heaven, or Hell may 

bring 
But no man knoweth the mind of 

the King 

RuDYARD Kipling 

HE was the Sultan of an important Malay State, 
but to those who knew him best he was, and 
will remain, ^'Craddock's King," principally because 
he always sent for Craddock whenever he wanted 
anything that he thought needed the assistance of 
a European officer, and, on the rare occasions when 
he travelled outside his own dominions, Craddock 
used to go with him as guide, interpreter, and shield. 
The King was one with whom things had gone 
badly until the appearance of the white man in his 
country His character had not endeared him to 
the people, who should have been his subjects, but 
were, almost without exception, his enemies ; and 
the consequence was that when he ought to have 

l6l L 



MALAY SKETCHES 

been elected to a high office, and later, when his 
birth entitled him to be nominated Sultan, his 
claims were ignored in favour of junior men. Up 
to the age of fifty or more he had passed his life 
in poverty, and even in want, and often in open 
resistance to such authority as existed. These 
strained relations with his own people made him 
loyal to the British, and as his claims were indis- 
putable, and the opportunity came when they might 
be satisfied, he at last attained to the position 
which was his by right. 

I will try to draw the man as he was at this 
time. Tall for a Malay, rather fair, with grey hair 
and a white moustache ; very broad-shouldered and 
thick-set, a powerful figure, though now inclined 
to over-stoutness ; a firm, upright carriage ; in his 
face an exceeding hauteur, and in his manner 
something more than this — the plain evidence of 
a masterful and overbearing disposition. The 
strength of mind, the obstinacy of character, 
were writ large in both face and figure; while 
an imperious manner was accentuated by a loud 
voice and impatient speech, caused to some ex- 
tent by the difficulty of understanding one whose 
teeth were few, and whose tongue was plainly 
over -large. 

Z62 



THE KING'S WAY 

The King affected gay colours, and his appear- 
ance, when he took his walks abroad, was striking, 
not to say remarkable. A tartan silk jacket, com- 
bining many violent colours and fastened at the 
neck only, clothed his body ; this jacket had a high 
collar which enclosed the wearer's bull-neck and 
reached to the ears. The nether garment was a 
pair of very wide and loose white silk trousers 
fastened by many yards of a scarlet silk waist- 
cloth. These trousers reached a point low down on 
the calf of the leg, leaving a fair expanse of 
uncovered limb between them and the sky-blue 
canvas shoes which encased the stockingless feet. 
On his head, tilted rakishly over one ear, the King 
wore a wonderful round bright yellow cap, flat on 
the top with stiff sides, on which were sewn, in 
Arabic characters of black cloth, a verse from the 
Koran. 

In his waist-cloth the King usually carried a short 
knife in a polished wooden sheath, and when walk- 
ing he leant upon a spear or long bamboo stick. 
Both hands and feet were white with an unnatural 
and mottled whiteness, caused, His Highness 
averred, by eating the flesh of the white buffalo, 
and, in walking, the toes were turned out to such 
an extent as to give a decided waddle. 

163 



MALAY SKETCHES 

For people with whom loyalty to their rajas is 
an article of faith, the dislike in which the King was 
held by them was extraordinary. It is charitable 
to suppose that early disappointment had embittered 
his Hfe, for he possessed good qualities. He was 
undeniably intelHgent, and had a wider knowledge of 
his country and its ancient customs than any other 
man in it. He knew his own mind, was deter- 
mined to obstinacy, and asked counsel of few. He 
was a keen sportsman, courageous, and, having 
sought the friendship of the British, never wavered 
in his loyalty. If it be said that in this-he con- 
sulted his own interest and knew his unpopularity 
with his own people, his consistency and good 
faith were still a merit. On the other hand, his 
defects and vices were numerous, and just those 
likely to earn him the dislike of Malays. He was 
incredibly mean, he was overbearing to cruelty, 
rapaciously grasping, jealous of the good fortune of 
any of his subjects, selfish, difficult of access, and 
unconcerned with the misfortunes of others ; vin- 
dictive to those who offended him or opposed his 
wishes, a gambler who nearly always contrived to 
win, and in matters where the other sex were con- 
cerned, decidedly unreliable. He was not an opium- 
smoker, nor was he in any sense a religious man, 

164 



THE KING'S WAY 

and, though the " Defender of the Faith " in his own 
country, he observed none of its outward forms. It 
cannot, therefore, be said that he. was in good odour 
with the priesthood and yet one of his firmest friends 
— for a time — was the priest of the neighbouring vil- 
lage who, whenever a witness was needed to support 
the King in any action or statement, was ready both 
to vouch to supposed facts and prove his master's 
case by the authority of Muhammadan writings. 

The constant appeal to the priest for justification 
and the persistence with which this man found 
excellent reasons for the King's peculiar methods 
was a little discouraging ; but there came an 
estrangement. The King, accompanied by the 
priest and others, visited a neighbouring British 
possession, stayed there some days, and at the 
moment of his return was faced by a serious 
indignity. It appeared that someone in this place 
who did not understand the King's peculiarities had, 
or thought he had, sold to His Highness a tricycle 
and a musical-box for which he could not obtain 
payment, and, having ascertained that the King was 
going and did not care about the things, this mis- 
guided individual somehow obtained a summons 
against His Highness to appear before a local 
tribunal and answer to the plaint. 

165 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The Kiiig, being informed, expressed his extreme 
unconcern, and said that, as it was the priest's busi- 
ness and his only, he could settle it. The priest 
raised the amount necessary to meet the bill, and 
the party returned to their own State with the 
musical-box and tricycle. 

Then *'a private pique arose" between King and 
Priest as to who should finally pay for these play- 
things. For the first time these firm friends 
appeared in opposition to each other, and both 
parties gave their respective versions of the trans- 
action before a highly edified and delighted Council 
of Arbitration. 

First the King : He knew nothing of any musical- 
box, did not like musical-boxes, had no ear for 
music, and did not understand the discordant 
noises made by these inventions of the white man. 
He had seen a thing of the kind in his house, had 
heard it, had even himself made it play its absurd 
tunes, did not enjoy it in the least, and had done it 
without thinking, but knew it would please the priest 
as he had bought the thing, and he supposed he 
would not have done so unless he wanted to have 
it played. 

As for the tricycle, how in the name of misfortune 
could a tricycle concern him ? The bare idea of a 

i66 



THE KING'S WAY 

man of his age and figure riding a tricycle was 
enough to make a dog bark (and here His Highness 
laughed consumedly at the spectacle he had con- 
jured up). Had anyone ever seen him ride a 
tricycle ? Where was he going to ride it ? Was 
it on the sandy shore of the river where he lived ? 
and if not there, then where ? He understood that 
tricycles would neither go through the jungle nor 
across padi fields, and, if he were to take " the 
creature" out shooting, he supposed it would not 
greatly help him to get a shot at a bison or a 
rhinoceros. Did anyone imagine he was going to 
carry letters ? that he was going to join the Post 
Office ? If the imputation were not so stupid he 
could almost be angry with the priest, a man whom 
he had heard over and over again say that the one 
thing he desired was a tricycle, something on which 
he could take exercise, and at the same time get 
about his district. He had even asked him, the 
King, to lend him money to buy the machine, but 
he had no money to lend and tried to dissuade the 
man because he thought that in his inexperience he 
might fall and hurt himself. Malays did not under- 
stand things that ran on three wheels without ever 
a horse or a bullock, or even a buffalo to pull them. 
He saw the tricycle lying under his house, and he 

167 



MALAY SKETCHES 

heard the priest haggling with someone about the 
price, but he would take any oath that the priest or 
anyone else could devise that he had never set eyes 
on the man who sold the thing. All he knew was 
that he had been insulted by the issue of a sum- 
mons because of the priest's extravagant tastes, 
and, while any one who liked might pay, it would not 
be he. 

Then the Priest : 

Long before they left the State, His Highness 
told him that when they made this visit it was his 
desire to purchase a musical-box (in the sweet 
strains of which his soul delighted) and a tricycle, 
the beautiful three-wheeled silent carriage which 
cost little to start with and nothing to keep, wanted 
no horses, nor harness, nor expensive and imperti- 
nent horse-keepers, which never shied at bullock- 
carts or ran away from elephants, and which lasted 
through the lives of many beasts. Therefore, he, 
the priest, the obedient slave of the King, had 
sought the sweet-voiced box and the stomachless 
carriage, and after much difficulty he had found 
them. By the express order of the King the priest 
had bidden the owners bring them to the house in 
which the King was lodging, and there the whole 

details of the two transactions were arranged. 

i68 



THE KING'S WAY 

The people who trafficked in these goods could not 
be taken into the presence of his master, and, in- 
deed, the King had expressly declined to see them 
(was not the King all-wise ?), but they had been 
brought into a room of the house across which 
hung a heavy curtain, and while he, the priest, dis- 
cussed the terms with the seller on one side, the 
King sat on the other, and not only heard all that 
was said, but in the end, when the priest went 
behind the curtain to consult his royal master, had 
expressed his entire approval of the price, only 
stipulating that he should first hear the box sing 
and ride the stomachless horse. This he had 
arranged with some little difficulty, because the 
sellers were needy men and wanted the money ; 
moreover, they seemed to distrust his master, the 
King, for some reason which he could not fathom. 
But he arranged that the singing-box and the seat 
on three wheels should stay with his master for four 
days, and that then they should be returned or paid 
for ; those were the orders of the King. So they 
stayed, and the King turned the handle of the box 
and made it sing, or, more often, from prayer-time 
to prayer-time he, the priest, had to turn the handle 
and make music, and the King drank in the sound 

and was glad. As for the three wheels, they ay 

169 



MALAY SKETCHES 

under the house, and the King looked upon the 
machine and said it was good and cheap and would 
eat nothing. 

These are the words of the Priest : ^*The four 
days went by and the men came to be paid, and I 
told my master, but he seemed to be busy with 
other things, and I sent them away to come again 
the next day. In this way the time passed till the 
day for our departure, and I knew the men who 
owned the box and the carriage were angry, but I 
saw my master wanted the things. When at last 
the trouble came, and the King said it was not his 
business but mine, I told the men they could take 
the box and the carriage back because they did not 
please the King, but they would not, and I was 
afraid lest shame should come on my master, and I 
went out and borrowed the money and paid it. 
Could I, who am a priest, play with a box that sings 
not of God nor the Prophet ? Can I, who am a poor 
man, who only live to pray and to preach, to exhort 
the living and to bury the dead, can I ride on the 
stomachless horse with three wheels, I whose duty 
is in the mosque and by the grave ? My master 
the King knows that in this thing as in others I 
have but obeyed the voice of my master." 

So Church and State quarrelled, and the priest 
170 



THE KING'S WAY 

found no more favour in the sight of the King. 
But there were many who said : 

*^Seperti Nasruan dengan Bahtek 
Ber-sdtu rangkesa 
Ber-cherei jddi sentosaT 

''They are like Raja Nasruan and his minister 
Bahtek ; their union brought ruin, their divorce 
solace." Indeed, it was the opportunity of the 
proverb-monger, and such sayings as, ''It is some- 
times one's own forefinger which pokes one in the 
eye," and, " While you carry the Raja's business on 
your head, don't forget to keep your own under 
your arm," were heard on all sides. 

The King had a clerk who had served him faith- 
fully for twenty years or more. The clerk had a 
wife, and the King's eye fell upon her approvingly; 
so the King sent the clerk into a far country to 
chase a wild bird, and bestowed his favour upon the 
wife who remained under his care. The King also 
bestowed upon the lady sundry jewels of price, 
things that please poor heathen women with hardly 
any moral character and no education to speak of. 

By-and-by the King got tired of the woman, as 
unprincipled Eastern kings will do, and he sought 
about for some means, not to rid himself of her, 

171 



MALAY SKETCHES 

that was simple enough, but to get back his gifts 
(for they would serve again as they had done 
already) and at the same time to throw a little dust 
in the eyes of the clerk, who was known to be on 
his way back. Accordingly, a youth of no account 
was arrested by the King's people, and charged with 
carrying on a liaison with the lady during the 
absence of her husband. The crime was, of course, 
aggravated by the fact that she was under the 
special protection of the King ! The clear proof of 
guilt was the alleged possession by the woman of a 
sarong^ belonging to the man. 

This charge was sufficient ground for the display 
of royal displeasure, and procured the restitution of 
the jewels, but it failed to convince anyone that the 
man accused by the King had done any wrong, and, 
in spite of the strenuous exertions of His Highness 
to get the man banished from the country, nothing 
was done to him. The plan, therefore, miscarried 
to some extent, and when the clerk returned it is 
probable that he learnt the facts, for he declined to 
further serve the King, and even said bluntly things 
about his late master that were not altogether loyal. 

I have elsewhere stated that Malays try to wipe 

* The Sdrong is the Malay national garment, a sort of skirt, 
usually in tartan, worn by men and women alike. 

172 



THE KING'S WAY 

out, what in their uncivilised minds they count as 
dishonour, in a savage and bloodthirsty fashion, but 
this does not apply when the offender is a raja and 
the injured man of lesser rank. The person of a 
raja is sacred to a Malay, and if he feels that he 
has been disgraced beyond bearing, the result will 
probably be, sooner or later, an access of blind fury 
resulting in a case of amok. 

The King had as many wives as the Muhammadan 
law permitted, and, as his country possessed the 
infinite blessing of a civil list which limited his own 
income, he was always anxious that whenever he 
took to himself a new wife she should receive an 
allowance from the State. His Highness made a 
special point of this grant to the ladies, because he 
said the knowledge that if they divorced him or 
compelled him to divorce them they would lose the 
allowance, had an excellent effect on their behaviour. 
He had succeeded in securing allowances for several 
wives, when a new lady, named Raja Sarefa, con- 
sented to share the royal smiles, and the King 
immediately applied on her behalf for the usual 
civil list. The application, however, was not suc- 
cessful, though several times renewed. 

Then the King fell ill of some fell disease that 
no native medicine-man could diagnose, and the 

173 



MALAY SKETCHES 

evil spirit, with which he seemed to be troubled, 
had its will of him, so that all men said the King 
must die. 

During an interval of temporary return to con- 
sciousness, when for a few hours the patient 
seemed to have a rest from the attacks of the 
tormentor, he ordered that a young nephew should 
be sent for, also a divorced wife of his own, and a 
priest. Then, against the earnest wishes of both 
parties, he insisted upon these young people being 
married in his presence, and shortly after relapsed 
into his former state. 

After weeks of torment, when every day seemed 
certain to be his last, the iron constitution prevailed, 
and the King recovered. In the first days of his 
convalescence I went to see him, and found him 
lying on his bed, in his eyes the light of conscious- 
ness and intelligence, and sitting by him the wife, 
Raja Sarefa. 

He was weak, spoke slowly and in a small voice, 
but said that by God's grace he only wanted time 
to regain his strength. After expressing my thank- 
fulness at seeing him so well on the way to 
recovery, I said that I had often been over to see 
him when he was ill, and that the Raja Sarefa had 
tended him with extraordinary devotion, never 

174 



THE KING'S WAY 

seeming to leave his bedside. At once he said, 
'* You noticed that, did you ? " I replied that I had 
been very much struck by her care of him. "I was 
blind," he said ; " I do not know what happened, 
but I am very glad you remarked how carefully 
Sarefa nursed me, and that you have mentioned it, 
for now you will recognise that she ought to have 
an allowance." 

In the presence of the lady, even though she did 
not raise her eyes from the floor, it was difficult not 
to recognise that, if curses come home to roost, 
blessings sometimes go astray. 

After a respite of eighteen months, the evil spirit 
again took possession of the King, and this time 
made short work of him. 

The scientific explanation, deriding the evil-spirit 
theory, said that a tumour on the brain, caused by 
no matter what, accounted for the first attack, and 
that as sometimes, but rarely, happens, the growth 
was for a time arrested, the tumour contracted, and 
the pressure on the brain was removed. But the 
mischief was there, and a sudden rapid development 
of the disease brought on a return of the symptoms, 
a violent but hopeless struggle, and death. 

It is the custom in the country of which I now 
write to, in a manner, canonise its Sultans. At the 

175 



MALAY SKETCHES 

burial, when the moment arrives for carrying the 
body to the place of sepulture, the dead man is 
given a new name, by which he is ever afterwards 
known. That name is chosen with some reference 
to his earthly hfe. Thus, there is Al-merhum or 
Merhum Pasir Panjang (that is, " The Sultan who 
died at Pasir Panjang"), Merhum Kahar- Allah 
(" The late Sultan to whom God gave strength "), 
and so on. 

When this King was buried, the name conferred 
upon him was Merhum Rafir- Allah, and the meaning 
is, " May God pardon him," 

Note. — Since writing the above, I have read the 
following in the Home News : 

'* In the Lord Mayor's Court on Oct. 14, before 
the Assistant Judge and a jury, the case of ^ Fischer 
V. Brown' was concluded. This (says the Times) 
was an action brought by Fischer and Co., a firm 
of Bombay merchants, to recover from Messrs. 
Brown, Saville, and Co., who carry on business in 
this country, the sum of £72>j money paid by the 
plaintiffs to the defendants, for which they had 
received no consideration. It appeared that in July, 
1892, the plaintiffs received an order for a special 
perambulator, which was to be given to His Highness 

176 



THE KING'S WAY 

Tikah Sahib, Rajah of Patalia, as a birthday present 
by his secretary, Sham Shir Sing. The perambu- 
lator was to be painted dark green and old gold, 
which were the colours of the Rajah, and there was 
to be a good strong musical-box under the seat, and 
also an automatic arrangement by which the per- 
ambulator, on being wound up, would run by itself. 
This order was given to the defendants by the 
plaintiffs on July 4, and the perambulator was to 
be ready for shipment to Bombay by Aug. 15, in 
order that it should reach the Rajah by Oct. I, 
which was the date of his birthday. The defendants 
did not finish the work in time, and the Rajah's 
birthday had passed before the present arrived, and 
then the secretary refused to take it, and it had to 
be sent back. In the meantime the defendants had 
drawn a bill upon the plaintiffs for the price of the 
perambulator, and this the plaintiffs had accepted 
and had paid the money, which they were now 
suing to recover. For the defence it was stated 
that the cause of the delay in delivering the per- 
ambulator was Mr. F. Fischer's interference. The 
wheels and springs of the perambulator, it had 
been agreed, should be electro-plated, but when 
Mr. Fischer heard this he said it would not suit the 
Rajah, and they must be gilded. He was told this 

177 M 



MALAY SKETCHES 

could not be done in time, and it was implied by 
the orders he gave (which were that the perambu- 
lator should have elephant- headed handles and 
papier-mache figures of elephants and peacocks) 
that a further allowance of time would be given. 
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiffs for the 
amount claimed.'* 



178 



XVI 
A MALAY ROMANCE 

Every heart in which heaven has set 
the lamp of love, whether that heart 
inclines to Mosque or Synagogue, if 
its name be written in the Book of 
Love it is freed from the fear of Hell, 
and the hope of Paradise 

Justin McCarthy's Omar 
Khayyam 

A QUARTER of a century ago there lived on 
the bank of a broad river, just at the point 
where stream meets tide, a Malay Raja and his 
youthful wife. She has been dead for twenty 
years, but in this land of brief regrets her memory 
is still green, the fame of her wit and beauty has 
become a byword with the people. 

She was a girl of royal descent ; her name. Raja 
Maimunah. Exceeding fair, for a Malay, slight but 
graceful in figure, with very small hands and feet, 
an oval face and splendid eyes, glistening blue- 
white wells in which floated, lotus-like, the dark 
iris, flashing or wooing in changeful expression 

179 



MALAY SKETCHES 

from wide-open or half-closed lids deeply shaded by 
long black lashes. Her nose was small, straight, 
and well cut, and the curved smiling lips disclosed 
teeth of perfect shape and singular whiteness. In 
either cheek a dimple, lesong mdH\ as the Malays 
call it, the dimple which so fascinates the beholder 
that it will lure him even unto death. Her jet- 
black hair, fringing the forehead in an oval frame, 
was drawn straight back over the well-shaped head 
and fastened in a simple knot with four ruby-studded 
hairpins ; the heads firmly fixed against one side of 
the coil, while the golden points protruded for an 
inch or more beyond the other. 

Her dress was that worn by all ladies of rank, 
and usually consisted of a silk skirt of softly- 
blended colours reaching to the ankles and fastened 
at the waist by a belt with a large golden buckle. 
The only other garment was a satin jacket of some 
dark colour on which were stitched cunningly- 
wrought designs of beaten gold. This jacket had 
a tight collar, and the close-fitting sleeves were 
fastened by a long row of jewelled buttons reaching 
almost from wrist to elbow ; it was loose at the 
waist and just covered the belt. Tiny heelless 
shoes, embroidered with gold and silver thread, 

completed the attire. 

i8o 



A MALAY ROMANCE 

When out of doors, the Raja Maimunah would 
wear a veil of darkest blue, black or white gossamer 
embroidered with very narrow gold ribbon, a most 
becoming head-dress, the product of Arabian skill. 
Over this, again, was held coquettishly, to conceal 
the face from male eyes, a scarf of rich Malay-red 
silk, heavy with interwoven threads of gold, while 
one or two more silken sarongs of varying colour 
and richness of material were worn over the under- 
skirt. 

Jewels depend upon the wealth and station of 
the wearer, but Maimunah's jacket was fastened 
with buttons that matched the hairpins. She was 
seldom seen without diamond solitaires in the ears 
and a number of diamond rings on her fingers, 
while on State occasions she wore heavy gold 
bangles on her wrists and one or more gold neck- 
laces. 

I cannot draw an equally attractive picture of 
Raja Iskander, the husband of this lady. He was 
about thirty years of age, while she was one-and- 
twenty. He was short and spare for a Malay, and 
his distinguishing features were a large ugly mouth 
with a downward turn at the corners and an almost 
perpetual expression of extreme discontent. 

His vanity was inordinate, his extravagance 
i8i 



MALAY SKETCHES 

continually led him into difficulty, and he smoked 
opium to excess and to the neglect of all his duties 
and his interests ; moreover, he lacked courage, and 
sought counsel from men of no standing, whose only 
thought was their own profit. 

A Malay Raja has many wives. He begins 
early and rings the changes often, until (especially 
if he have pretensions to become ultimately the 
ruler of his country, as was the case with Iskander) 
his relatives decide that he should marry a lady 
of his own rank. Then, if he is young, her 
people usually insist that any wife he has must 
be divorced, and, that done, the marriage takes 
place. 

At the time of which I write, Raja Iskander had 

been married to Maimunah for about three years ; 

she was the mother of two children, but her husband 

thought he had good reason to doubt her fidelity, 

and he was palpably neglecting her for a concubine. 

That he should have other wives or concubines was 

of course only what she had been educated to 

expect, and, in acting on his right. Raja Iskander 

was simply following the practice of his ancestors 

and the custom of the country. The Muhammadan 

law is nevertheless extremely strict in its injunctions 

that all wives are to be treated with equal considera- 

182 



A MALAY ROMANCE 

tion, and, while their claims are clear, the concubine 
has none. To neglect a wife for a concubine is a 
dire offence to Malay women, and the slight is enor- 
mously exaggerated when the wife is of high birth, 
and the favourite only a woman of the people. 

The house where Raja Iskander then lived was 
within a hundred feet of the bank of the stream, an 
unattractive spot fifty miles from the mouth of the 
river, but yet not far enough to escape the tidal 
influence and the unlovely accompaniments of turbid 
water, muddy banks, and flat surroundings. Raja 
Iskander passed a good deal of his time in boats, 
the lazy life suited him and his habits, and, instead 
of having to provide a house for each of the ladies 
in his harem, he supplied a boat. That was much 
more economical, and economy was an object, for, 
like many people with extravagant tastes, his 
extravagance was purely selfish. 

The boats lay in the river in front of the house, 
and as Raja Iskander's presence was the excuse for 
a rendezvous of all the gamblers, cock-fighters, and 
opium-smokers of the neighbourhood, a good many 
boats besides his own were always in attendance. 

Amongst the visitors attracted to this spot at this 
time was a man called Raja Sleman, a stranger from 
a neighbouring State. 

183 



MALAY SKETCHES 

It might have been the cock-fighting or the 
gambling always to be found in the society of Raja 
Iskander that drew Raja Sleman to the place. It 
might also have been the congenial society of 
another opium-smoker, or possibly the fame of Raja 
Maimunah's attractions. Whatever the lodestone, 
Raja Sleman appeared with two boats and about 
fifteen followers, and, once arrived, he elected to 
remain. 

Raja Iskander passed most of his time on the 
water, but Maimunah lived in the house on shore. 
A very modest dwelling it was ; a building of mat 
sides and thatched roof raised from the damp and 
muddy earth on wooden piles, a flight of steps led 
into the front of the house and a ladder served for 
exit at the back. The interior accommodation con- 
sisted of a closed-in verandah, one large room, and 
a kitchen tacked on behind. 

The edges of the muddy river were fringed by the 
nipah palm, which is never seen beyond tidal influ- 
ences; the banks were covered by rank grasses, 
the country was flat and desolate, the jungle insig- 
nificant, and in the heat of the day the oppression 
of steaming mud and shelterless plain was so great 
that sleep seemed to force itself on insect, reptile, 

and every living thing. 

184 



A MALAY ROMANCE 

At night the myriads of fireflies sparkling in the 
riverside bushes, their twinkhng lights reflected in 
the water, gave some relief to tired eyes ; but the 
gain in the change of temperature and scene was 
hardly appreciated when the mosquitoes and sand- 
flies began their merciless attacks. 

Under such circumstances and amidst such 
surroundings, Raja Sleman came into the life of 
Maimunah. 

He was about the same age as Raja Iskander, 
but in other respects there was a striking difference 
between the two men. Sleman was a man of 
pleasing features, extremely quiet, and of courtly 
manners ; the casual observer would probably fail 
to realise that this outward appearance concealed a 
firm determination and a dauntless courage. Of 
worldly goods he had little enough, and small 
prospect of multiplying them, but in rank he was 
almost, if not quite, the equal of Raja Iskander. 

One day as Sleman sat in his boat he saw 
Maimunah and her maidens come down to the river 
to bathe. In his country he had never beheld a 
woman as beautiful as this one, and he fell hope- 
lessly in love with Iskander's wife. Then each day 
he watched for her, and never failed, morning and 
evening, to follow her with his eyes for the few 

185 



MALAY SKETCHES 

moments when she slowly wended her way from 
house to river and back again. 

Meanwhile, Maimtinah, suffering from the spretce 
injuria formce and chafing under the monotony of 
existence, had heard ail about the arrival of Sleman 
and readily listened to the tales of his valorous 
deeds. Soon she began to look for him, and as he 
was ever watching for her coming it was not long 
before their eyes met. He pleased her, and, when 
she saw in his face the admiration he had no desire 
to conceal, she would drop the covering that hid all 
but her eyes, and what he then beheld only increased 
his passion. 

Malay ladies are adepts in speaking the language 
of the eyes, the chances of verbal speech are but 
few, and so carefully is this art cultivated, so 
thoroughly understood, that principals and witnesses 
never fail to rightly interpret the signs. 

Sleman and Maimunah had already mutually 
declared themselves without the exchange of a 
syllable, and it was with perfect confidence that 
Sleman sought a closer intimacy by the friendly aid 
of a messenger. 

Iskander was too much engaged with his opium 
and his latest favourite, too generally satisfied with 
himself, to notice what was going on. Had he 

i86 



A MALAY ROMANCE 

realised the state of affairs he would not have been 
indifferent to the disgrace that must be his, should 
his wife's liaison become public property. It is un- 
likely that he had any suspicion of Sleman, but, if 
he had, it would never occur to him that any man 
would have the courage to do more than carry on a 
clandestine intrigue, and of that he suspected Mai- 
munah had already been guilty. Least of all would 
it seem possible for a foreigner supported by a 
dozen followers to brave the power and resentment 
of well nigh the greatest chief of a powerful State. 

In this, however, he was misled by the suave 
manners of the quiet stranger. 

Sleman's suit prospered, and he was not satisfied 
to continue indefinitely filling the role of false friend 
to Iskander and fearful lover to his wife. However 
much he despised the man, however easily he found 
he could profit by Iskander's indifference, he meant 
to play a bolder game and make Maimunah his own 
at all hazards if she were prepared to face the risk. 

Her courage was equal to his own (for failure 
meant probably death to her as to him), and one 
night, while Iskander lay in his boat dreaming over 
his opium-pipe, the stranger was carrying off his 
royal spouse within earshot, almost from under his 
very eyes. 

187 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Once in Sleman's boat, and the bark had been 
silently unmoored and allowed to drift out of sight 
and hearing, little time was lost in getting out the 
oars and pulling with might and main down river 
towards the coast. 

All night long the rowers bent to their work, 
but when morning broke and less than half the 
distance to the river's mouth had been traversed, 
Sleman ordered the men to pull in to the bank, 
fasten up the boat and rest. 

It seemed a foolhardy proceeding to waste the pre- 
cious time, for with the dawn the elopement would be 
discovered and Iskander would be in pursuit before 
the sun had cleared the tops of the jungle trees. 

Raja Sleman's quiet serenity was not disturbed 
by anticipations of capture or fear of the outraged 
husband's fury. On the contrary, he procured a 
small boat and a messenger, and he indited a letter 
to Raja Iskander, informing him he had carried 
away the Raja Maimunah, but that he had not 
gone far, having only reached the place he named. 
He added that he would wait there for one night 
and one day against the coming of any who might 
wish to try and take the lady from him, and that 
after that time he should continue his journey to 
the coast and thence to his own country. 

i88 



A MALAY ROMANCE 

Raja Iskander received this missive whilst yet 
undecided what course to take in the untoward 
disaster that had befallen him. The letter did not 
greatly help him to arrive at a decision, and he was 
still discussing with his chiefs who should have 
the honour of pursuing and punishing the abductor 
when the twenty-four hours expired. 

Neither Iskander nor any of his people ever 
started on that quest, and Raja Sleman carried 
Maimunah in safety to his own country. 

The disconsolate husband, whose ideas were in 
accord with a civilisation beyond the education or 
sympathetic comprehension of his subjects, decided 
to divorce his faithless wife and leave her lover to 
marriage and the punishment of his own con- 
science. It is a painful fact that this conduct 
earned him not the admiration but the contempt 
of his people. 

Iskander had one revenge : he discovered amongst 
Maimunah's women two who had carried messages 
between the lovers. One was a woman of twenty- 
five, the other a girl of fourteen, and both were in- 
continently strangled. 

As for Sleman and Maimunah, they were duly 
married, and she bore him a daughter in all respects 
like her mother, though not, the old people say, her 

189 



MALAY SKETCHES 

peer in beauty. The laudator temporis acti is a 
common and flourishing plant in Malaya. 

In the two children born before the elopement, it 
is difficult to trace any resemblance to their mother. 

Maimunah died years and years ago, the victim 
of a malignant disease ; but Sleman still lives in his 
own country, his hair is getting grey, but otherwise 
he shows few signs of age. Time has only inten- 
sified the courteous bearing and quiet repose of 
manner which seem to fitly accompany his gentle 
winning voice ; no one would suspect that this 
man, almost single-handed, carried off the chief 
spouse of an Oriental prince, and then defied the 
whole country to take her from him. 

There are no local bards to record Sleman's story 
in deathless song, and the people are so impregnated 
with vice that they seek for no excuses to palliate 
his conduct, and have no condemnation for this 
ruthless destroyer of Iskander's happy home. But 
they are Muhammadans, and seldom allow them- 
selves the luxury of burning moral convictions. I 
have never seen a missionary proselytising amongst 
the Malays, but many years ago I was told that a 
Christian missionary came to Malaya full of zeal 
and confident of success. He began with a man 
who seemed an earnest, truthful person, anxious to 

190 



A MALAY ROMANCE 

learn, a promising subject. The missionary told 
him the story of the Immaculate Conception. The 
Malay listened to the end, showing great interest in 
the miraculous narrative of the Blessed Virgin ; then 
he said, '* If that had happened to my wife, I should 
have killed her." 



191 



XVII 
MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

There are more things in heaven and 

earth, Horatio, 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy 
Hamlet 

MALAY superstitions are the survival of a time 
antecedent to the advent of the gospel of 
Islam, and their strong hold on the people is only 
another proof of the conservative tendencies of the 
race. What was the Faith of Malaya seven hundred 
years ago it is hard to say, but there is a certain 
amount of evidence to lead to the belief that it was 
a form of Brahmanism and that no doubt had suc- 
ceeded the original Spirit Worship. 

I do not propose to attempt to enumerate all the 
various forms of superstition, their name is legion, 
but only to describe a few that are both curious and 
interesting. 

I have already referred to what is known as ber- 

hantu, the practice of a kind of witchcraft for the 

192 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

healing of the sick ; it reminds one of '* casting out 
devils in the name of Beelzebub the Prince of the 
devils " — and I might here give some of the incan- 
tations commonly spoken by the exorcist, but one 
will suffice. Here is the translation of a most 
potent exorcism believed to be efficacious against 
the malevolent attacks of a thousand lesser 
demons : 

Heigh ! thou Spirit whose name is Jin Pari of 
the Jin Aruah ; Rabiah Jamil was thy mother's, 
Imam Jamil thy father's name ; thou art the grand- 
child of Hakim Baisuri, the great-grandchild of 
Malim of the Forest. Thou Spirit of the path 
Lorin, Spirit of the rising ground Sri Permatang,. 
Spirit of the ant-hill known as " Piebald Horse." 
Heigh ! you white ants Sekutanai, why do you, 
Sekutapa, flying up stream make me think you are 
on your way down, and flying down stream give the 
impression that you are going to the interior ? 

I know your origin, spawn of Hell's spouting 
flame ; do not any longer torment this person. 

If you disobey, I will curse you by the name of 
the Most High, saying, ^' By the Grace of God, by 
the Grace of God, by the Grace of God." 

The final threat to drive out the demon by using 
the name of the Almighty is curious as showing 

193 N 



MALAY SKETCHES 

how the exorcist seeks by a judicious blending of 
tradition with his latter-day Faith to get the better 
of the tormentor. 

A very widespread superstition is that certain 
persons have familiar spirits who will, at the 
instance of their owners, enter into and plague any 
one whom it may be desired to injure. These evil 
spirits are known as Bdjangy Polong, Pelsit, and 
Langsuior, the last being a female spirit. They are 
either inherited or acquired by the practice of witch- 
craft, and the way in which their possession is 
brought home to any member of the community is 
as little reasonable as the " proof" of the exercise 
of similar powers in the Western witch not so many 
centuries ago. 

Some one in a village falls ill of a complaint, the 

symptoms of which are unusual ; there may be 

convulsions, unconsciousness, or delirium, possibly 

for some days together or with intervals between 

the attacks. The relatives will call in a native 

doctor, and at her (she is usually an ancient female) 

suggestion, or without it, an impression will arise 

that the patient is the victim of a bdjang. Such an 

impression quickly develops into certainty and any 

trifle will suggest the owner of the evil spirit. One 

method of verifying this suspicion is to wait till the 

194 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

patient is in a state of delirium and then to question 
him or her as to who is the author of the trouble. 
This should be done by some independent person of 
authority who is supposed to be able to ascertain 
the truth. 

A further and convincing proof is then to call in 
a **Pawang" skilled in dealing with wizards (in 
Malay countries they are usually men), and if he 
knows his business his power is such that he will 
place the sorcerer in one room, and, while he in 
another scrapes an iron vessel with a razor, the 
culprit's hair will fall off as though the razor had 
been applied to his head instead of to the vessel ! 
That is supposing he is the culprit ; if not, of 
course he will pass through the ordeal without 
damage. 

I have been assured that the shaving process is 
so efficacious that, as the vessel represents the head 
of the person standing his trial, wherever it is 
scraped, the wizard's hair will fall off in a corre- 
sponding spot. It might be supposed that under 
these circumstances the accused is reasonably safe, 
but this test of guilt is not always employed. 
What more commonly happens is that when several 
cases of unexplained sickness have occurred in a 
village, with possibly one or two deaths, the people 

195 



MALAY SKETCHES 

of the place lodge a formal complaint against the 
supposed author of these ills and desire that he be 
punished. 

Before the advent of British influence it was the 
practice to kill the wizard or witch whose guilt had 
been established to Malay satisfaction, and such 
executions were carried out not very many years 
ago. 

I remember a case in Perak less than ten years 
ago when the people of an up-river village accused 
a man of keeping a bdjang^ and the present Sultan, 
who was then the principal Malay Judge in the 
State, told them he would severely punish the 
bdjang if they would produce it. They went away 
hardly satisfied and shortly after made a united 
representation to the effect that if the person sus- 
pected were allowed to remain in their midst they 
would kill him. Before anything could be done 
they put him, his family, and effects on a raft and 
started them down the river. On their arrival at 
Kuala Kangsar the man was given an isolated hut 
to live in, but not long afterwards he disappeared. 

The hereditary bdjang comes like other evils, the 
unsought heritage of a dissolute ancestry, but the 
acquired bdjang is usually obtained from the newly- 
buried body of a stillborn child, which is supposed 

196 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

to be the abiding-place of a familiar spirit until 
lured therefrom by the solicitations of someone 
who, at dead of night, stands over the grave and 
by potent incantations persuades the bdjang to come 
forth. 

Polong and Pelsit are but other names for Bdjang^ 
the latter is chiefly used in the State of Kedah 
where it is considered rather chic to have a pelsit. 
A Kedah lady the other day, eulogising the advant- 
ages of possessing a familiar spirit (she said that 
amongst other things it gave her absolute control 
over her husband and the power of annoying people 
who offended her), thus described the method of 
securing this useful ally : 

" You go out," she said, " on the night before 

the full moon and stand with your back to the moon 

and your face to an ant-hill so that your shadow 

falls on the ant-hill. Then you recite certain y^w/>* 

(incantations), and bending forward try to embrace 

your shadow. If you fail try again several times, 

repeating more incantations. If not successful go 

the next night and make a further effort, and the 

night after if necessary — three nights in all. If 

you cannot then catch your shadow, wait till the 

same day on the following month and renew the 

attempt. Sooner or later you will succeed, and, 

197 



MALAY SKETCHES 

as you stand there in the brilliance of the moonlight, 
you will see that you have drawn your shadow into 
yourself, and your body will never again cast a 
shade. Go home and in the night, whether sleeping 
or waking, the form of a child will appear before 
you and put out its tongue ; that seize and it will 
remain while the rest of the child disappears. In 
a little while the tongue will turn into something 
that breathes, a small animal, reptile or insect, and 
when you see the creature has hfe put it in a bottle 
and the pelsit is yours." 

It sounds easy enough, and one is not surprised 
to hear that everyone in Kedah, who is anybody, 
keeps a pelsit, 

Langsuiorj the female familiar, differs hardly at 
all from the bdjang except that she is a little more 
baneful, and, when under the control of a man, he 
sometimes becomes the victim of her attractions, 
and she will even bear him elfin children. 

It is all very well for the Kedah ladies to sacrifice 
their shadows to obtain possession of a pelsit^ leaders 
of society must be in the fashion at any cost ; but 
there are plenty of people living in Perak who have 
seen more than one ancient Malay dame taken out 
into the river, and, despite her protestations, her 
tears and entreaties, have watched her, with hands 

198 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

and feet tied, put into the water and slowly pushed 
down out of sight by means of a long pole with a 
fork at one end which fitted on to her neck. Those 
who witnessed these executions have no doubt of 
the justice of the punishment, and not uncommonly 
add that after two or three examples had been made 
there would always ensue a period of rest from the 
torments of the bdjang. I have also been assured 
that the bdjangj in the shape of a lizard, has been 
seen to issue from the drowning person's nose. 
That statement, no doubt, is made on the authority 
of those who condemned and executed the victim. 

The following legend gives the Malay conception 
of the origin of all /m, hantu^ bdjangj and other 
spirits. 

The Creator determined to make Man, and for 
that purpose He took some clay from the earth and 
fashioned it into the figure of a man. Then He 
took the Spirit of Life to endue this body with 
vitality and placed the spirit on the head of the 
figure. But the spirit was strong, and the body, 
being only clay, could not hold it and was reft in 
pieces and scattered into the air. Those fragments 
of the first great Failure are the spirits of earth and 
sea and air. 

The Creator then formed another clay figure, but 
199 



MALAY SKETCHES 

into this one He wrought some iron, so that when 
it received the vital spark it withstood the strain 
and became Man. That man was Adam, and the 
iron that is in the constitution of his descendants 
has stood them in good stead. When they lose it, 
they become of little more account than their proto- 
type the first failure. 

Another article of almost universal belief is that 
the people of a small State in Sumatra called 
Korinchi have the power of assuming at will the 
form of a tiger, and in that disguise they wreak 
vengeance on those they wish to injure. Not 
every Korinchi man can do this, but still the gift 
of this strange power of metamorphosis is pretty 
well confined to the people of the small Sumatran 
State. At night when respectable members of 
society should be in bed, the Korinchi man slips 
down from his hut, and, assuming the form of a 
tiger, goes about '^ seeking whom he may devour." 

I have heard of four Korinchi men arriving in a 
district of Perak, and that night a number of fowls 
were taken by a tiger. The strangers left and 
went further up country, and shortly after only 
three of them returned and stated that a tiger had 
just been killed, and they begged the local headman 
to bury it ! 

200 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

On another occasion some Korinchi men appeared 
and sought hospitality in a Malay house, and there 
also the fowls disappeared in the night, and there 
were unmistakable traces of the visit of a tiger, but 
the next day one of the visitors fell sick, and shortly 
after vomited chicken-feathers ! 

It is only fair to say that the Korinchi people 
strenuously deny the tendencies and the power 
ascribed to them, but aver that they properly belong 
to the inhabitants of a district called Chenaku in 
the interior of the Korinchi country. Even there, 
however, it is only those who are practised in the 
elemu sehir^ the occult arts who are thus capable 
of transforming themselves into tigers, and the 
Korinchi people profess themselves afraid to enter 
the Chenaku district. 

It was my misfortune some years ago to be 
robbed of some valuable property, and several 
Malay friends strongly advised me to take the 
advice of an astrologer or other learned person who 
(so they said) would be able to give the name of 
the thief, and probably recover most of the stolen 
things. I fear that I had no great faith in this 
method of detection, but I was anxious to see what 
could be done, for the East is a curious place, and 
no one with an inquiring mind can have lived 

201 



MALAY SKETCHES 

in it long without seeing phenomena that are not 
always explained by modern text- books on Natural 
Philosophy. 

I was first introduced to an Arab of very remark- 
able appearance. He was about fifty years old, tall, 
with pleasant features and extraordinary grey-blue 
eyes, clear and far-seeing, a man of striking and 
impressive personality. I was travelling when I 
met him, and tried to persuade him to return with 
me, but that he said he could not do, though he 
promised to follow me by an early steamer. He 
said he would be able to tell me all about the 
robbery, who committed it, where the stolen pro- 
perty then was, and that all he would want was an 
empty house wherein he might fast in solitude for 
three days, without which preparation, he said, he 
would not be able to see what he sought. He told 
me that after his vigil, fast, and prayer, he would 
lay in his hand a small piece of paper on which 
there would be some writing, into this he would 
pour a little water, and in that extemporised mirror 
he would see a vision of the whole transaction. 
He declared that, after gazing intently into this 
divining-glass, the inquirer first recognised the 
figure of a little old man. That having duly saluted 
this /m, it was only necessary to ask him to conjure 

202 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

up the scene of the robbery, when all the details 
would be re-enacted in the liquid glass under the 
eyes of the gazer, who would there and then 
describe all that he saw. I had heard all this 
before, only it had been stated to me then that the 
medium through whose eyes the vision could alone 
be seen must be a young child of such tender years 
that it could have never told a lie ! The Arab, 
however, professed himself not only able to conjure 
up the scene, but to let me see it for myself, if I 
would follow his directions. Unfortunately, my 
grey-eyed friend failed to keep his promise, and I 
never met him again. 

A local Chief, however, declared his power to 
read the past by this method, if only he could find 
the truthful child. In this he appeared to succeed, 
but when, on the following day, he came to disclose 
to me the results of his skill, he said that a difficulty 
had arisen because just when the child (a little boy) 
was beginning to relate what he saw he suddenly 
became unconscious, and it took the astrologer two 
hours to restore him to his normal state. All the 
mothers of tender-aged and possibly truthful 
children declined after this to lend their offspring 
for the ordeal. 

My friend was not, however, at the end of his 
203 



MALAY SKETCHES 

resources, and, though only an amateur in divina- 
tion, he undertook to try by other methods to find 
the culprit. For this purpose he asked me to give 
him the names of everyone in the house at the time 
the robbery was committed. I did so, and the next 
day he gave me one of those names as that of the 
thief. I asked how he had arrived at this knowledge, 
he described the method and consented to repeat 
the experiment in my presence. That afternoon I 
wentwith him to a small house belonging to his sister. 
Here I found my friend the Chief, his sister, and 
two men whom I did not recognise. We all sat in a 
very small room, the Chief in the centre with a copy 
of the Koran on a reading-stand, near to him the 
two men, opposite to each other, the sister against 
one wall and I in a corner. A clean new unglazed 
earthenware bowl with a wide rim was produced. 
This was filled with water, and a piece of fair white 
cotton cloth tied over the top, making a surface like 
that of a drum. 

I was asked to write the name of each person 
present in the house when the robbery was com- 
mitted on a small piece of paper, and to fold each 
paper up so that all should be alike, and then to 
place one of the names on the cover of the vessel. 
I did so, and the proceedings began by the two 

204 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

men placing each the middle joint of the fore-finger 
of his right hand under the rim of the bowl on 
opposite sides, and so supporting it about six inches 
above the floor. The vessel being large and full of 
water was heavy, and the men supported the strain 
by resting their right elbows on their knees as they 
sat cross-legged on the floor and face to face. It 
was then that I selected one of the folded papers, 
and placed it on the cover of the vessel. The Chief 
read a page of the Koran, and as nothing happened 
he said that was not the name of the guilty person, 
and I changed the paper for another. This occurred 
four times, but at the fifth the reading had scarcely 
commenced when the bowl began to slowly turn 
round from left to right, the supporters letting their 
hands go round with it, until it twisted itself out of 
their fingers and fell on the floor with a considerable 
bang and a great spluttering of water through the 
thin cover. '* That," said the Chief, *^ is the name 
of the thief." 

It was the name of the person already mentioned 
by him. 

I did not, however, impart that piece of informa- 
tion to the company, but went on to the end of my 
papers, nothing more happening. 

I said I should like to try the test again, and as 
205 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the Chief at once consented we began afresh, and 
this time I put the name of the suspected person on 
first, and once more the vessel turned round and 
twisted itself out of the hands of the holders, till it 
fell on the floor and I was surprised it did not break. 
After trying a few more I said I was satisfied, and 
the ordeal of the bowl was over. 

Then the Chief asked me whose name had been on 
the vessel when it moved, and I told him. It was 
a curious coincidence certainly. I wrote the names 
in English, which no one could read ; moreover, I 
was so placed that no one could see what I wrote, 
and they none of them attempted to do so. Then 
the papers were folded up so as to be all exactly 
alike, they were shuffled together, and I did not 
know one from the other till I looked inside myself. 
Each time I went from my corner and placed a name 
on the vessel already held on the fingers of its 
supporters. No one except I touched the papers, 
and no one but the Chief ever spoke till the seance 
was over. I asked the men who held the bowl why 
they made it turn round at that particular moment, 
but they declared they had nothing to do with it, 
and that the vessel twisted itself off their fingers 
against their inclination. 

..-The name disclosed by this experiment was 
206 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

certainly that of the person whom there was most 
reason to suspect, but beyond that I learnt nothing. 

Another plan for surprising the secret of a 
suspected person is totget into the room where that 
person is sleeping, and after making certain passes 
to question the slumberer, when he may truthfully 
answer all the questions put to him. This is a 
favourite device of the suspicious husband. 

Yet another plan is] to place in the hand of a 
pdwangy magician, or medium, a divining-rod formed 
of three lengths of rattan tied together at one end, 
and when he gets close to the person ** wanted," or 
to the place where anything stolen is concealed, the 
rod vibrates in a remarkable manner. 

A great many Malays and one or two Europeans 
may be found who profess to have seen water 
drawn from a kris. The modus operandi is simple. 
The '^ pawang " (I dare not call him conjurer) 
works with bare arms to show there is no deception. 
He takes the kris (yours, if you prefer it) from its 
wooden handle, and, holding the steel point down- 
wards in his left hand, he recites a short incantation 
to the effect that he knows all about iron and where 
it comes from, and that it must obey his orders. He 
then with the thumb and first two fingers of his 

right hand proceeds to gently squeeze the steel, 

207 



MALAY SKETCHES 

moving his fingers up and down the blade. After 
a Httle while a few drops of water fall from the 
point of the kris^ and these drops quickly develop 
into a stream that will fill a cup. The " pawang " 
will then hand round the blade and tell you to bend 
it ; this you will find no difficulty in doing, but by 
making two or three passes over the kris the 
" pawang " can render it again so hard that it cannot 
be bent. 

The only drawback to this trick or miracle is 
that the process ruins the temper of the steel, and a 
kris that has been thus treated is useless. 

One evening I was discussing these various 
superstitions with the Sultan of Perak, and I did 
not notice that the spiritual teacher of His Highness 
had entered and was waiting to lead the evening 
prayer. The guru^ or teacher, no doubt heard the 
end of our conversation and was duly scandalised, 
for the next day I received from him a letter, of 
which the following is the translation : 

*' First praise to God, the Giver of all good, a 
Fountain of Compassion to His servants. 

*'From Haji Wan Muhammad, Teacher of His 
Highness the Sultan of Perak, to the Resident who 
administers the Government of Perak. 

208 



MALAY SUPERSTITIONS 

''The whole earth is in the hand of the most 
High God, and He gives it as an inheritance tQ 
whom He will of His subjects. The true religion 
is also of God, and Heaven is the reward of those 
who fear the Most High. Salvation and peace are 
for those who follow the straight path, and only 
they will in the end arrive at real greatness. No 
Raja can do good, and none can be powerful except 
by the help of God the Most High, who is also 
Most Mighty. 

''I make ten thousand salutations. I wish ta 
inquire about the practice of ber-hantUy driving 
oneself mad and losing one's reason, as has been 
the custom of Rajas and Chiefs in this State of 
Perak ; is it right according to your religion, Mr. 
Resident, or is it not? For that practice is a 
deadly sin to the Muhammadan Faith, because 
those who engage in it lose their reason and waste 
their substance for nothing ; some of them cast it 
into the water, while others scatter it broadcast 
through the jungle. How is such conduct treated 
by your religion, Mr. Resident, is it right or wrong? 
I want you in your indulgence to give me an answer, 
for this practice is very hard on the poor. The 
Headmen collect from the rayats^ and then they 
make elaborate preparations of food, kilHng a buffalo 

209 o 



MALAY SKETCHES 

or fowls, and all this is thrown away as already 
stated. According to the Muhammadan religion 
such proceedings lead to destruction. 

^' I salute you many times, do not be angry, for 
I do not understand your customs, Mr. Resident. 

'< (Signed) Haji Muhammad Abu Hassan." 



210 



XVIII 
WITH A CASTING-NET 

Where fountains of sweet water run 

between, 
And sun and shadow chequer-chase*! 

the green 

Jami 

PERAK is one of the largest and most populous 
of the States of the Malay Peninsula, it is 
the one where probably the rulers can claim the 
clearest genealogy and the longest recorded descent, 
and it is unquestionably here that all ancient rites 
and customs have been most carefully preserved. 

Whilst it was to Perak that the first British 
Resident was appointed, and this State is now the 
most wealthy, advanced, and prosperous of all those 
under British influence, the Malays still maintain 
their traditions and observe their honoured customs 
as though railways and steamers, education and 
sanitation had no more part in their lives than 



MALAY SKETCHES 

when Albuquerque was striving to effect a landing 
on the shores of Malacca. 

For ages it has been a practice of the Sultans of 
Perak to reserve certain waters for their own fish- 
ing, and certain jungle tracts (usually surrounding 
a hot spring of mineral water) for their own hunting. 
There they would resort, annually or oftener, and 
with their relatives, chiefs, and followers take their 
kingly pleasure, as it was duly chronicled had been 
the custom of their ancestors. 

In the lull after the first heavy rains, that is 
about the month of December, when the river has 
been swollen to flood-height for a couple of months, 
the tuntong or river-turtles ascend the Perak River 
in considerable numbers and lay their eggs on cer- 
tain convenient sand stretches in the neighbourhood 
of Bota, about lOO miles from the river's mouth. 

The most frequented of these laying grounds 
is a place called Pdsir Telor (egg-sand), just below 
Bota, and it is here that the ladies of the Court 
annually assemble to dig up the eggs, which the 
Malay considers one of the greatest delicacies 
known to him. 

The river-turtle is a great deal smaller than the 
sea-turtle, but it lays a larger ^%%y and one much 
more valued by Malays. 

212 



WITH A CASTING-NET 

As soon as the river rises watchers are stationed 
on the sands, and the turtles are said to lay three 
times. The nests are dug between two and three 
feet under the sand, and contain from about fifteen 
to thirty-five eggs each. During the laying season 
boats are not allowed to stop at the sands for fear 
they should disturb the turtles. 

When the first set of eggs has been laid and the 
turtles have returned to the river, the watchers 
open the nests and send the eggs up to the Sultan. 
The second set of nests is opened by the royal 
party, and the third is left to hatch, an operation 
that takes six months. There is no sitting, the 
young turtles simply emerge from the sand, walk 
down into the river and swim away. 

It is said that if the first and second nests are 
left untouched, the turtles themselves open them 
and scatter and destroy the eggs ; but that, after 
the third "lay," they take their departure, having 
accomplished their task. 

Directly the watchers report that the turtles 
have made the second nests, the Sultan and his 
family, with the neighbouring chiefs and their 
families, take boat and paddle down the stream to 
Pasir Telor. 

Fifteen or twenty large house-boats and several 
213 



MALAY SKETCHES 

bamboo rafts containing about one hundred and 
fifty people make an imposing procession. The 
rafts are simply floating houses, with mat walls and 
a high thatched roof, and are manned by crews of 
from four to sixteen polers; but the boats are 
graceful and picturesque barges, of which the 
foundation is a long dug-out of hard wood drawing 
very Httle water, the freeboard is raised by the 
breadth of one or two planks, and over the stern 
half of the boat is built a palm- thatched covering 
on a slight wooden frame, while curtains secure 
privacy. Inside this house, the roof of which rises 
in a sharp curve towards the stern, sit and lie on 
mats and cushions the owner and his family or 
friends. The crew occupy the forward half of the 
boat, where they sit to paddle down stream or 
stand to pole up. The steersman has a high seat 
in the stern, from whence he is able to see clear of 
the cabin-roof. 

The covered portion of the barge which carries 
the Sultan's principal wife is decorated with six 
scarlet-bordered white umbrellas. Two officers 
stand all day long, just outside the state-room, 
holding open black umbrellas with silver fringes, 
and two others are in the bows with long bamboo 
poles held close together and erect. The royal 

214 



WITH A CASTING-NET 

bugler sits on the extreme end of the prow, and 
from time to time blows a call on the antique silver 
trumpet of the regalia. Flags are flown, other boats 
carry gongs and drums, and altogether the pleasure- 
fleet makes a brave show and a considerable noise, 
attracting the attention of afl the dwellers on the 
riverine. 

The journey from the Sultan's palace at Kuala 
Kangsar occupies two days, and on the morning of 
the third all the ladies of the party, with all their 
attendants and children (a good many still in arms)^ 
disembark for the ceremony of digging out the 
turtle-eggs. 

The ladies are in their smartest garments 
and wear their costliest jewels. It is a blaze of 
brilliant-coloured silks, of painted sarongs, cloth-of- 
gold scarves, and embroidered gauze veils ; of bright 
sunshades, gold bracelets, necklaces, and bangles ; 
of curious jewelled brooches, massive hair-pins, and 
rings flashing with the light of diamonds and 
rubies. 

The men appear in jackets, trousers, and sarongs 
of hardly less striking hues; but the horror of 
Western dyes and Western schemes of colour has 
not yet demoralised the Malay's innate sense of 
beauty and fitness, and nothing offends the eye as 

215 



MALAY SKETCHES 

all this wealth of bravery moves slowly across the 
strand. 

A scorching sun shines down on the gaily-clad 
iigures with their background of dark jungle, on the 
yellow sands and sparkling river, with its burden 
of picturesque boats, and gives light and shadow to 
a charming picture. 

The watchers have marked with twigs the various 
nests, and each lady of rank, with her little crowd 
of attendants, makes for one of these, and with her 
hands begins to dig up the sand in search of the 
eggs. But the nest is deep down, and the sides of 
the hole have a way of falling in on the digger, so 
a man or boy is desired to remove the overburden 
and make things easy for the lady. The overlying 
sand is quickly scooped out until one or two of the 
white eggs are disclosed, and then the lady, sitting 
on the edge and stooping far down, can just manage 
to reach the nest, and the eggs are carefully 
handed up. 

Besides the pleasure of actually removing the 
eggs with one's own hand, of displaying to admiring 
eyes a vision of taper fingers and rounded wrist, of 
showing how little it matters that the costliest 
garments should trail in the sand, there is the 
rivalry of whose nest yields the largest number of 

216 



WITH A CASTING-NET 

eggs. Anything over twenty-five is considered a 
satisfactory find. 

By the time all the nests have been rifled, the 
sands are growing so hot under the rays of the 
fiery sun that bare feet can hardly endure what is 
little short of torture. There is an almost hurried 
return to the boats, the finery is exchanged for 
simpler garments, and all the men and many of the 
ladies take to the river, and there disport themselves 
in a manner that is refreshing to sun-scorched 
bodies and the eyes of the Western spectator who 
is fortunate enough to see how it is possible to be 
unconventionally natural and yet perfectly modest. 

It is only on such occasions as this that a 
strange man can see these ladies unveiled and even 
so he is not expected to look at them or go very 
near them ; but their bathing-costume differs hardly 
at all from that which they commonly wear, and 
they thoroughly enjoy this opportunity of revelling 
in the clear waters of the sand-bedded stream. 

Then every one scrambles back into the boats, 

which are pushed off into deep water, the rowers 

seize their paddles and with beat of gong and the 

musical notes of the silver serunat) with jest and 

laughter, pennons waving, and bright eyes sparkling 

behind the rainbow-coloured blinds, the picturesque 

217 



MALAY SKETCHES 

flotilla glides on its course down the long sunny 
reach, in and out amongst the islets, round a 
heavily-wooded, deeply-shadowed headland, past 
the riverside hamlets and the orchards, the stately 
palms, the clusters of bamboo that overhang the 
water like great plumes of pale green feathers, and 
so ever onward through sunlight and shadow till 
another bourne is reached. 

The graceful turn of the leading barge towards 
a sand-spit flanked by a long inviting backwater, 
the roll of a drum and every prow is headed for 
the shallows of the bank that divides the dyer matt) 
the " dead water," from the living hurrying stream. 

The boats arrange themselves in divisions, the 
crews land, make fires, and boil the rice for their 
mid-day meal, while the cooking and breakfasting 
of the members of the " court" is done on board 
the various barges. 

In this feudal and conservative country when 
the people eat they makauy but the Raja does not 
ntdkaHy with him it is santap. When *' the masses" 
bathe they mandi^ but the same operation in the 
case of a Raja is called seram; a chief or a beggar 
may sleep and that is tidoVy but when the Raja 
sleeps he is said to ber-ddu. This does not mean 
that a wide gulf divides Malay classes, there is 

218 



WITH A CASTING-NET 

rather that communion as of the members of an 
old Scotch clan, but respect and courtesy are 
characteristic of the race, a prized legacy which it 
is not yet considered a sign of either independence 
or good manners to despise. People of the same 
class, rajas and chiefs, children and parents, 
brothers and sisters, speak to each other with 
studied deference and never forget the little distinc- 
tions that mark fine shades of rank or age. Boys 
and girls are as careful in the observance of these 
courtesies as are their elders. 

Education and contact with Europeans will alter 
all this, and in the next century there will be more 
equality and probably less politeness and fraternity. 
But then also there will be no royal preserves, no 
class privileges, and no State junketings where 
noble and peasant meet in generous rivalry of skill 
with a single desire to snatch from the toil, the 
disappointments, and the sorrows of life one week 
of pleasure wherein individual joy may grow 
greater in the knowledge that it is shared by many. 

Future possibilities do not disturb our friends, 
whose guiding principle is rather " insufficient 
for the day is the pleasure thereof." They have 
attacks of hatred and gloom, and then they kill, 
if the desire is strong enough, but these fits 

219 



MALAY SKETCHES 

are rare, and when not actively engaged in amusing 
themselves they are lotus-eating, sometimes figura- 
tively, sometimes in reality. 

This is a time for action, and, the mid-day meal 
disposed of, all the men of the party get ready their 
casting-nets and don the garments that will least 
hamper the free use of their limbs and will not be 
injured by a thorough wetting. 

The backwater has a narrow and shallow 
entrance on the river, and this entrance is staked 
across to guard it from what in the West would be 
called poachers. Through the stakes a way has 
now been made wide enough to admit of the pas- 
sage of boats. The Sultan's barge and a few other 
house-boats have passed the barrier, and these are 
accompanied by a fleet of fifty uncovered dug-outs, 
each with a fight grating of split-bamboos over half 
its length, and each carrying two or three paddlers, 
one of whom steers and one man standing on the 
extreme end of the bow ready to cast the net. 

These nets are of local make, the mesh is small, 
the thread of twisted strands of finest cotton, and 
the length varies according to the ability of the 
owner to cast it. A very short net is five or six 
cubits in length from centre to edge, a long one is 
twelve or thirteen cubits, and to cast that with 

220 



WITH A CASTING-NET 

accuracy so that it reaches the water perfectly 
extended requires a very skilful hand. The bottom 
or edge of the net is weighted with small leaden 
rings that sink it rapidly through the water, while 
a fine cord from the centre is attached to the right 
wrist of the thrower. The net is usually dyed a 
dark brown with a solution made from the bark of 
the mangrove. 

The backwater where this annual netting is done 
is a long narrow strip of fairly deep water widening 
slightly in the centre and contracting at the ends. 
On one side it is bordered by a low grass-grown 
shore and on the other by a jungle-covered bank 
from which the overhanging branches cast dark 
shadows on the glassy surface, stirred here and 
there into tiny wavelets by every passing zephyr. 

By 3 P.M. all is ready ; some of the oldest and 
most skilful netters stand in the bows of the royal 
barges, a dozen young rajas are in dug-outs and 
the others are occupied by their owners, men from 
the neighbouring villages who have come to join in 
the sport. 

The Sultan gives the signal, and the boats move 
off slowly and at once form themselves into a 
crescent, with the royal barges in the centre. The 
horns of the crescent draw towards each other, the 

221 



MALAY SKETCHES 

boats make a simultaneous in-turn, the circle is 
completed, and at the moment when it becomes 
sufficiently circumscribed every net is cast, covering 
the whole surface of the water within the ring of 
boats. Directly the nets have been cast they sink, 
the paddlers back-water, and each net is slowly 
drawn to the surface and the fish taken are dis- 
engaged from the fine meshes and thrown into the 
boat under the bamboo grating. 

Almost every net contains fish, and the numbers 
vary from two or three to fifty or sixty bright 
silvery fishes weighing from half a pound to a 
pound each. 

The operation is then repeated, and the fleet of 
boats works its way slowly from end to end of the 
backwater, a distance of about a mile. 

Sometimes every net makes a good haul, some- 
times only one or two do very well, and all the rest 
indifferently. It is no easy matter with such an 
insecure foothold to cast a long and heavy net, but, 
well done, the act of casting is graceful and attrac- 
tive. First the slack of the cord is taken up in 
loops in the right hand and after it the net, until the 
leaden rings clear the boat and reach to about the 
thrower's knee. Then with his left hand he takes 
up part of the skirt of the net and hangs it over his 



WITH A CASTING-NET 

right arm and shoulder. This done he seizes the 
balance of the skirt in his left hand, swings his 
body backwards and then forwards with a strong 
propelling movement of arm, shoulder, and back that 
sends the net straight out over the water to fall 
perfectly extended, like a huge brown cobweb, the 
outer edges sinking instantly under the weight of 
the leaden rings and drawing together by reason of 
the resistance of the inner surface of the net. 

The game looks easy enough, but try it and you 
will probably find yourself in the water at the first 
cast with the net tied up into an inextricable knot. 

Watch the experienced hand. The boats are 
now at a bend in the middle of the backwater, the 
circle is formed, the in- turn is given to the bows, 
the ring narrows, and at this moment the scene is 
picturesque to a degree and strangely weird. 

Atmospheric changes come quickly here ; the sky 
has become suddenly overcast, a heavy rain-cloud is 
being rapidly driven before a rising wind, and the 
water is now dark and gloomy. This cordon of low 
black boats, so close to each other that they almost 
touch, on every bow a half-bent, quaintly-clad form 
with the net hanging in graceful folds from arm and 
shoulder, while fifty dark earnest faces gaze eagerly 

on the narrowing space. In that instant it flashes 

223 



MALAY SKETCHES 

across the spectator's mind that some mystic rite of 
fell intent is to be performed within that magic 
zone. Then heigh ! Abracadabra ! The word is 
given to cast, and from fifty boats the nets fly out 
with a swirl and settle on the water with a gentle 
hiss. But the skilful thrower waits for a second or 
two, knowing that the fish, frightened by this rain ot 
lead, will dash for the only spot where there seems 
to be a gap. Then deftly he casts a net with a 
diameter of forty feet, and the moment he strains 
the cord he realises that he has made an extraordi- 
nary capture. He pulls the net up a Httle way, and 
then, plunging his arms into the water, grasps the 
meshes on either side and calls for help to raise the 
struggling mass of fish. All eyes are fixed on the 
lucky Raja, and as the take is lifted into the boat 
there are shouts of delight and congratulation and 
clapping of hands from the ladies, who are keenly 
interested. By this single cast the thrower has 
secured one hundred and twenty-one fish, and his 
contribution for the afternoon is over seven hundred 
" tails." 

Just as the furthest end of the backwater is 
reached the rain, which has been long threatening, 
comes down in torrents, and there is a race for 
shelter and dry clothes. The dug-outs with three 

224 



WITH A CASTING-N^T 

or four paddlers easily beat the barges with a dozen, 
but long before the river is reached the netters are 
as wet as the fish, and have a swim in the warm 
water of the river before changing into dry clothes. 

Then there is a lull in the storm, and the more 
enthusiastic return to the netting and, unmindful of 
hunger, darkness, and rain, still cast the nets till 
10 P.M., when they return thoroughly tired out, but 
happy in the knowledge that the bag numbers over 
ten thousand fish. 

Amongst these late comers and most ardent 
sportsmen are several ladies who, not satisfied with 
the ease and dignity of a royal barge, have braved 
the elements and gone fasting to share the excite- 
ment of the netting in the discomfort of the dug- 
outs. 

That is how the Sultan of Perak's annual fishing 
party takes its pleasure, and about the very same 
time His Highness of Pahang will be leading a 
similar expedition in the quiet waters of an old 
channel of the Pahang River. 

There, however, the method is rather different — 

the water is poisoned with the juice of the tuba root, 

and the stupefied fish are speared and netted as they 

float and swim aimlessly about. The fun is much 

the same, perhaps, but the pursuit is less sporting 

225 p 



MALAY SKETCHES 

than by the means employed in Perak. It is not 
however, perfectly easy to spear even drugged fish 
without both skill and practice. 

In Pahang, also, the pageant is conducted with 
much state and ancientry, and, as the nature of the 
pastime requires only a moderate effort, the ladies 
of the Harim smile on the proceedings and, armed 
with silken nets on hafts of gold, themselves essay 
to scoop up the scaly quarry. Amongst the ladies 
of the Court are some the exceeding fairness of 
whose skin, the perfect oval of their faces, and the 
glances of their liquid eyes so embarrass the men 
of the party that many a spear flies wide of its 
mark. 

There are some things still hidden from the ken 
of Cook and the race of Globe trotters, and I do 
not fear to reveal the secrets of this remote corner 
of the earth, for, if any be thereby induced to visit 
the Peninsula in search of such displays as I have 
tried to describe, he will meet with disappointment. 

You cannot, in the language of Western culture, 
put a penny in the slot and set in motion the wheels 
of this barbarous Eastern figure. 



226 



XIX 
JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

Such was our friend, formed on the 

good old plan, 
A true and brave and downright 

honest man 

Whittier 

ON the 2nd November 1875, Mr. James 
Wheeler Woodford Birch, British Resident 
of Perak, was assassinated by Malays at a place 
called Pasir Salak on the Perak River. I propose 
to describe why and how this murder was com- 
mitted. 

Mr. Birch began life as a midshipman in the 
Royal Navy. He abandoned the sea for Govern- 
ment employment in Ceylon, where he spent the 
best years of his life, and was promoted to be Gov- 
ernment Agent of the Eastern Province, one of the 
highest positions in the Island. In 1870 Mr. Birch 
was appointed Colonial Secretary of the Straits 
Settlements, and when Major-General Sir Andrew 

227 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Clarke, R.E., then Governor of the Straits Settle- 
ments, concluded the Pangkor Treaty with the Perak 
Chiefs in 1874 and introduced a new departure in 
the relations between the British Government and 
the Malay States, he selected Mr. Birch for the 
difficult post of adviser to the Sultan of Perak. 

Mr. Birch assumed his duties in the end of 1874, 
and very soon found that, looking to the people 
with whom he had to deal and his own power- 
lessness to enforce an order, he had undertaken a 
well-nigh impossible task. At that time the Malay 
Peninsula was a terra incognita to white men, and 
the characteristics, customs, peculiarities and pre- 
judices of the Malay had yet to be learnt. 

Of all the States in the Peninsula Perak was 
probably the least well suited for the schooling of a 
Resident and the initiation of the interesting but 
dangerous experiment of Government by the advice 
of a British officer. 

It had a large Malay population, people whose 
ancestors had for generations belonged to the place 
and who were saturated with ancient customs, pre- 
judices, and superstitions that had to be learned, 
and with many of which it was difficult to sym- 
pathise. It had an unusual number of Rajas and 

Chiefs, each with some kind of privilege or vested 

228 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

interest. The revolting practice of debt-slavery, 
under which the slaves often suffered indescribable 
wrongs, was rife in the land, and, though contrary 
to the Muhammadan religion, was supported and 
clung to by all the upper classes. The State was 
torn by internal dissensions, the jealousies and 
rivalries of opposing claimants to the Sultanship 
and other high offices. The rivers and jungle tracks 
were the only means of getting about the country. 
The white man was an unknown and unfeared 
quantity. 

Mr. Birch, unfortunately, for all his long Eastern 
experience, knew very little of Malays and almost 
nothing of their language, and, though he always 
had with him a very capable Malay interpreter, the 
inability to carry on a direct conversation with chiefs 
and people greatly increased his difficulties. He was 
not, however, the man to sit down in the face of 
opposition either to save himself trouble or to ac- 
knowledge defeat, and the consequence was that his 
extraordinary energy in travelling about the country, 
" spying out the land," and his persistence in attempt- 
ing to redress grievances, to save lives, to bring the 
guilty to punishment, and to induce the then Sultan 
Abdullah and his immediate following to mend their 
ways, earned him the determined opposition of all 

229 



MALAY SKETCHES 

those who disliked interference, and preferred the 
state of uncontrolled lawlessness to which they were 
accustomed. 

Mr. Birch lived in Perak as its Resident for barely 
twelve months, but to trace with care the reasons 
why his relations with Abdullah grew daily more 
strained till matters culminated in the assassination 
of the Resident, would be to write a volume. It is 
sufficient to state a few of the more prominent 
facts. 

First, it is necessary to say in the most positive 
terms that Mr. Birch was assassinated solely and 
entirely for political reasons, for the reasons I have 
already given. He was white, he was a Christian 
and a stranger, he was restless, climbed hills and 
journeyed all over the country, he interfered with 
murderers and other evil-doers, he constantly 
bothered the Sultan about business and kept press- 
ing him to introduce reforms, while every change is 
regarded by the Malay with suspicion and distrust. 
That was his crime in their eyes ; of personal feel- 
ing there was none, wherever Mr. Birch went there 
were people who had to thank him for some kind- 
ness, some attention. The Malays have always 
admitted this, and, if it seems strange that I should 

make a point of the motive, it is because Europeans 

230 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

who did not know have suggested that the Resident's 
murder was due to non-pohtical causes, a suggestion 
for which there is not a semblance of foundation. 

By September 1875, matters had come to a dead- 
lock. With the Resident, in what was called the 
down-stream country, was a Sultan, Abdullah, 
created by the British Government, but declining to 
accept the advice of the Resident who had been 
appointed at his special request. Abdullah's opposi- 
tion was mainly negative but absolutely effective, 
for as the Resident could only tender advice and 
had no commission, and no sufficient means to 
compel its adoption, his voice was that of one 
*' crying in the wilderness." Up-stream there was 
another Sultan, Ismail, elected by some of the chiefs 
but admitted to have no sufficient claim to the post. 
Between the partisans of these rival Sultans, very 
strained relations existed. 

Then there was another claimant to the Sultan- 
ship in the person of the Raja Muda Jusuf, who 
lived still further up country, and while his claims 
were undoubtedly the best, his personal unpopu- 
larity was so great that the people would not accept 
him as Sultan. 

The success of the Residential idea (for no one 
had attempted to formulate any scheme or system) 

231 



MALAY SKETCHES 

depended on the existence of mutual confidence and 
friendship between Sultan and Resident. That was, 
unfortunately, wanting, and, as after many months 
of patient eflfort on the part of Mr. Birch the desired 
result seemed further away than ever, the governor 
of the neighbouring colony (then Major-General Sir 
W. Jervois, R.E.) determined to visit Perak and see 
what chance there was of establishing administra- 
tive authority, collecting revenue, and otherwise 
carrying out the provisions of the Pangkor Treaty. 

As the result of that visit and of interviews 
between the Governor and the Chiefs, a proposition 
was made to Sultan Abdullah that the government 
of the State should be carried on in his name by 
British officers. He hesitated for some days, but, 
finding that the Raja Muda and others had at once 
and gladly accepted the suggestion, he determined 
to do the same, fearing, no doubt, that otherwise he 
might be left out of the administration altogether. 

It was the Malay fasting-month, the bulan pudsa^ 
when these last events occurred. It is not an 
auspicious time for conducting negotiations with 
Malays, they do not even attempt to work for that 
month, they sleep for most of the day and sit up 
most of the night, eating and talking, discussing 
affairs and hatching plots. This, at least, is the case 

232 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

with the upper classes, and it is they only who are 
concerned in political movements ; the common 
people do not fast as a rule, and leave the plotting 
to the chiefs, whose business they think it is to 
scheme and to direct, theirs to obey. 

In Lower Perak during this particular month of 
Ramthan, an unusual amount of discussion had 
been carried on between Sultan Abdullah and his 
chiefs, and they determined not only that the 
British Resident should be got rid of, but one 
of them, entitled the Maharaja Lela, undertook to 
do the business the next time Mr. Birch visited 
him. 

This man, the Maharaja Lela, was a chief of con- 
siderable rank, after the Sultan he was the seventh 
in the State. He lived at Pasir Salak, on the right 
bank of the Perak River, about thirty miles above 
the residence of Sultan Abdullah, and about forty 
below that of ex-SuItan Ismail. He avoided Mr. 
Birch whenever it was possible (though living only 
five miles from him), and managed to keep friends 
with both Sultans. 

During the month, Sultan Abdullah, who was 
then with his boats at Pasir Panjang, a couple of 
miles below the Maharaja Lela's house, summoned 
his chiefs and informed them that he had given over 

233 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the government of the country to Mr. Birch. This 
announcement was received in silence by the others, 
to whom it was doubtless no news, but the Maha- 
raja Lela said, " Even if your Highness has done 
so, I do not care at all. I will never acknowledge 
the authority of Mr. Birch or the white men. I 
have received letters from Sultan Ismail, the Mentri 
and the Penglima Kinta telling me on no account to 
obey the English Government in Perak. I will not 
allow Mr. Birch to set his foot in my kampong at 
Pasir Salak." 

The Sultan said, *'Do you really mean that, 
Maharaja Lela?" and the Chief replied, ** Truly I 
will not depart in the smallest degree from the old 
arrangement." 

Another chief, the Datoh Sagor, who lived on the 
other side of the river, exactly opposite to Pasir 
Salak, said, '^ What the Maharaja Lela does I will 
do." 

The Sultan then got up and withdrew. 

Two or three days before the end of the month 
the Sultan called another meeting of his chiefs at a 
place called Durian Sa'batang, ten miles below the 
small island on which the Resident's hut stood. 
At that meeting the Sultan produced the proclama- 
tions which were to be issued, placing the ad- 

234 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

ministration in the hands of British officers, and 
asked his chiefs what they thought of them. The 
Laksamana, an influential chief, said, '* Down here, 
in the lower part of the river, we must accept the 
proclamations " ; but the Maharaja Lela said, " In 
my kampong I will not allow any white man to post 
those proclamations. If they insist on doing so, 
there will certainly be a fight." To this the Sultan 
and other chiefs said, " Very well." 

The Maharaja Lela immediately left, and having 
loaded his boats with rice, returned up river to his 
own kampong. 

Pasir Salak was the usual collection of Malay 
houses scattered about in groves of palm and fruit 
trees by the river-bank. Prominent amongst these 
was the Maharaja Lela's own dweUing, a large and 
comparatively new building of a more than ordin- 
arily substantial kind, round which he had for 
months past been digging a great ditch and throw- 
ing up a formidable earthwork crowned by a 
palisade. These preparations had been duly noted 
by the Resident. 

Arrived at his own home, the Maharaja Lela sent 
out messengers to summon all the men in his 
immediate neighbourhood, and when they were 
collected he addressed them and stated that Mr. 

235 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Birch was coming up the river in a few days, and 
that, if he attempted to post any notices there, the 
orders of the Sultan and the down-river chiefs were 
to kill him. The assembled people said that, if 
those were the commands of the Sultan and the 
Maharaja Lela, they would carry them out. The 
chief then handed his sword to a man called Pandak 
Indut, his father-in-law, and directed that everyone 
should give to him the same obedience as to him- 
self. The people then dispersed. It was one or 
two days after this that Mr. Birch arrived at Pasir 
Salak. 

Before describing the events of the 2nd Novem- 
ber I must go back for a moment. 

A number of officers, of whom I was one, had 
accompanied Sir W. Jervois in his journey to 
Perak. When the Governor and those with him 
left the State I was directed to remain behind with 
Mr. Birch to assist him in his negotiations with the 
chiefs, A fortnight later I went to Singapore with 
important papers and the drafts of proclamations 
defining the authority of the Resident under the new 
arrangement. These proclamations were printed, 
and I returned to Perak with them, joining Mr. 
Birch in his house on the 26th October. 

I found the Resident had met with an accident ; 
236 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

he had slipped down and so badly sprained his 
ankle that he could not walk without crutches. 
Lieut. Abbott, R.N., and four bluejackets were at 
Bandar Bharu (the Residency), where were also 
quartered the Sikh guard (about eighty men), the 
boatmen, and others. 

Mr. Birch undertook to distribute the proclama- 
tions himself in the down-river districts, and 
directed me to go up river, to interview the ex- 
Sultan Ismail, the Raja Muda, the Raja Bendahara, 
and other up-country chiefs, and, having distributed 
the proclamations at all important villages from 
Kota Lama downwards, to try to meet him at 
Pasir Salak on the 3rd November. There, he told 
me, he expected trouble for which he was quite 
prepared. 

The Sikh guard was in a state bordering on 
mutiny in the evening of the 27th, but by the 
following morning they seemed to have returned 
to their senses, and about noon I left Bandar 
Bharu with two boats for the interior, Mr. Birch 
starting down stream at the same time. 

He must have got through his part of the work 

more rapidly than he expected, for he reached 

Pasir Salak with three boats at midnight on the 

I St November, and anchored in midstream. The 

237 



MALAY SKETCHES 

1st November was the Hdri Raya^ the first day 
after the Fast. At daylight his boats went along- 
side the bank, and the Resident's own boat was 
made fast to the floating bath-house of a Chinese 
jeweller, whose little shop stood on the high bank 
a few feet from the riverside. This was the only 
Chinese house in Pasir Salak. 

Mr. Birch was accompanied by Lieut. Abbott, 
an armed guard of twelve Sikhs, a Sikh orderly, 
the Malay interpreter (an eminently respectable 
Malay of nearly fifty named Muhammad Arshad), 
and a number of Malay boatmen and servants. 
There must have been about forty people in the 
party. Mr. Birch had with him a 3-Pr. brass gun, 
a small mortar, and a number of English fire-arms 
and Malay weapons, besides other property. 

Directly after their arrival Mr. Abbott borrowed 
a small boat from the Chinaman and went across 
the river to Kampong Gajah to shoot snipe, the 
Chief of that place, the Datoh Sagor, returning in 
the boat to Pasir Salak, where he at once sought 
an interview with Mr. Birch. 

After this conversation, which was held in the 
Resident's boat, the Datoh Sagor and Mr. Birch's 
interpreter went to the Maharaja Lela's house, and 
the interpreter said to the Maharaja Lela that the 

238 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

Resident wished to see him and would go to his 
house for that purpose, but if the Chief preferred 
it, and would go to Mr. Birch's boat, he would be 
glad to meet him there. The Maharaja Lela said, 
" I have nothing to do with Mr. Birch," and the 
interpreter returned to the boat and reported to his 
master the result of his interview. 

The news of the Resident's arrival had been 
spread in every direction, and all those in the 
neighbourhood were ordered to come in. By this 
time, sixty or seventy men had assembled and were 
now standing about on the bank of the river close 
to Mr. Birch's boats. They were all armed with 
spears and kriseSy and Mr. Birch asked the Datoh 
Sagor what they wanted, and that they should be 
told to stand further away. The Datoh told them 
to move away, and they gave a few yards, but at the 
same time began to abuse the Resident, calling him 
an " infidel," and asking what he meant by coming 
there asking questions and speaking like one in 
authority. Probably the Resident did not under- 
stand these ominous signs, but his boatmen heard 
and realised that trouble was brewing. 

Mr. Birch now gave some proclamations to the 
interpreter, who took them on shore and posted 
them on the shutters of the Chinaman's shop. 

239 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Almost immediately, Pandak Indut, the Maharaja 
Lela's father-in-law, tore them down and took them 
off to the Maharaja Lela's house. That chiefs 
dictum, was " Pull down the proclamations, and, if 
they persist in putting them up, kill them." Then 
it may be supposed he washed his hands of all 
responsibility, and Pandak Indut went out to 
execute his master's orders. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Birch had handed to his inter- 
preter some more proclamations to replace those 
removed, and, after giving directions to prepare his 
breakfast, went into the Chinaman's bath-house to 
bathe, leaving his Sikh orderly at the door with a 
loaded revolver. This bath-house was of the type 
common in Perak, two large logs floating in the 
stream, fastened together by cross-pieces of wood, 
and on them built a small house with mat sides 
about five feet high, and a roof closing on the sides 
but leaving two open triangular spaces at front and 
back. The structure is so moored that it floats 
parallel to the bank, and a person even standing 
up inside it cannot see what is taking place on the 
shore close by. 

It was now about lo a.m., and in spite of the 
threatening attitude of the large crowd of armed 
Malays standing in groups and passing between 

240 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

the river-bank and their chief's house, the Resident 
was composedly bathing in the river, while his 
people were some of them cooking on the bank, 
others sleeping in the boats, and a few, the Malays, 
anxiously expectant, fearing the signs boded a 
catastrophe. 

They had not long to wait. The interpreter 
was still replacing the proclamations on the China- 
man's hut, when Pandak Indut and a number of 
other men came quickly from the Maharaja Lela's 
house. 

The crowd asked, *' What are the Chiefs 
orders ? " 

Pandak Indut repHed, " He leaves the matter to 
me." 

Going straight up to the Chinese shop, he began 
tearing down the newly-posted papers ; the inter- 
preter protested, and, seeing no heed was paid to. 
him, turned towards the bath-house. He had not 
made half a dozen steps, when Pandak Indut over- 
took him and thrust his spear into the man's 
abdomen. The wounded man fell down the bank 
into the river and caught hold of his master's boat, 
but others followed him and cut him over the head 
and hands, so that he let go and struggled out into- 
the stream. 

241 Q 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The interpreter disposed of, Pandak Indut cried 
out, " Here is Mr. Birch in the bath-house, come, 
let us kill him," and, followed by three or four others 
shouting amok, amok, they leapt on to the floating 
timbers and thrust their spears through the open 
space in the front of the house. 

At that time men in the boats could see Mr. 
Birch's head above the mat wall; it disappeared 
without any sound from him, and a moment after he 
came to the surface of the water astern of the house. 
Some of the murderers were already waiting there, 
and one of them, a man called Siputum, slashed 
the Resident over the head with a sword. He sank 
and was not seen again. 

The Sikh orderly, standing with a revolver at the 
door of the bath-house, jumped into the river with- 
out any warning to his master, swam off to one of 
the boats and saved himself. 

The river-bank was now the scene of a general 
melee. A Malay boatman and a Sikh had been 
killed, but the others had got one of the boats away 
from the bank into midstream and towards it two 
of Mr. Birch's Malays were swimming while they 
supported the grievously wounded interpreter. 
With difficulty they gained the boat and got the man 
in. As they dropped down the river Mr. Birch's 

242 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

coxswain urged the Sikhs to fire on the Malays, 
but they said they could not do so without an 
order ! He accordingly gave the order, and some 
shots were fired which for a moment cleared the 
bank. A small boat with two men in it put out 
lower down stream to intercept the fugitives, and 
two of them were wounded by shots from these 
men. The coxswain then wrenched a rifle from a 
Sikh and shot one of these assailants. After this 
the boat proceeded unmolested to Bandar Bharu. 
Long before they arrived there the interpreter died. 

Mr. Abbott, shooting on the other bank, was 
warned of what had taken place, and with great 
difficulty got into a dug-out and made his way down 
stream under the fire of the Malays on the bank. 

The attack, the murder of the Resident, his in- 
terpreter, the Sikh and the boatman, and the escape 
of the rest of the party was the work of a few 
minutes. Whilst still the passion of strife and 
bloodthirst swayed the crowd, the Maharaja Lela 
walked into their midst and asked whose hands had 
done the Resident and his men to death. Instantly 
Pandak Indut, Siputum, and the others, claimed - 
credit for their murderous work. The Chief said, 
" It is well, none but those who struck blows can 
share in the spoil." He then called a man forward 

243 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and said, '' Go and tell the Laksamana that I have 
killed Mr. Birch." The message was delivered the 
same day, and the Laksamana said, " Very well, I 
will tell the Sultan." 

That evening the Maharaja Lela sent a letter tO' 
ex-Sultan Ismail describing what he had done, and^ 
to remove any doubt on the subject, he sent with it 
the Resident's own boat. 

These are the facts about Mr. Birch's assassina^ 
tion, and it may be of some interest to add that the 
Resident's two boats were immediately rifled and 
all their contents carried up to the Maharaja Lela's 
house. 

An attack upon the Residency was planned^ 
ordered to be carried out that night, and a number 
of men started on the expedition, and even got 
within a few hundred yards of Bandar Bharu ; but 
it began to rain, and a man at whose house the 
party called told them they would get a warm 
reception, and it would be quite a different thing to 
murdering the Resident, so they elected to return 
with their object unattained. 

By the help of a friendly Malay, a foreigne 
Mr. Birch's body was recovered, brought to Bandar 
Bharu, and there buried on the night of the 6tli 

November. 

244 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

The Maharaja Lela and his neighbour the Datoh 
Sagor, having '^ burnt their ships," proceeded to 
stockade their villages, and those stockades were 
subsequently taken, the rebels driven out, and their 
villages destroyed. 

Sooner or later punishment overtook every man 
directly concerned in this crime, and also nearly 
all those who were indirectly responsible. Some 
fell during the subsequent fighting, one died an 
outlaw in the jungle. 

The first man captured was Siputum. He was 
brought in to Bandar Bharu late one evening in the 
early part of 1876, and I went to see him in the 
lock-up about midnight. A wilder looking creature 
it would have been hard to find. He was a 
Pdwang, a medicine man, a sorcerer. For many 
weeks he had been a hunted outcast, and he seemed 
to think that capture was almost preferable to the 
life he had been leading. He sat on the floor and 
described to me his share in Mr. Birch's murder, 
pausing between the sentences to kill mosquitoes 
on the wall of his cell. He volunteered the state- 
ment that Mr. Birch was a good man, who had 
been kind to him, and that what he did was by 
order of his Chief, whom he was bound to obey. 
The responsibility of the individual for his own 

245 



MALAY SKETCHES 

actions was a doctrine that was strange to him^ 
and he learnt it too late to profit by it. 

In December 1876, the Maharaja Lela, the 
Datoh Sagor, Pandak Indut, and four others were 
arraigned before the Raja Muda Jusuf and Raja 
Alang Husein, and charged with murdering Mr. 
Birch and the others at Pasir Salak on the 2nd 
November 1875. 

They were prosecuted by Colonel Dunlop, R.A., 
and myself, on behalf of the Government, and 
defended by an able and experienced member of 
the Singapore Bar. After a trial which lasted 
eight days, they were severally found guilty and 
condemned to death, but the extreme penalty was. 
exacted only in the cases of the three first named. 

Sultan Abdullah, and other Chiefs whose com- 
plicity in the assassination was established by the 
fullest evidence, were banished from the State, and 
a like sentence was passed upon the ex-Sultan- 
Ismail and some of his adherents. 

In Mr. Birch the British Government lost one of 
its most courageous, able, and zealous officers, but, 
by the action which his death made necessary, the 
State of Perak gained in twelve months what ten 
years of " advice " could hardly have accomplished. 
That was not all, for the events of those twelve 

246 



JAMES WHEELER WOODFORD BIRCH 

months, when they came to be fully known, threw 
a light on the inner life of the Malay and his 
peculiar characteristics, that was in the nature of a 
revelation. It is all too soon to forget the lesson 
or disregard its teachings. 



247 



XX 

A PERSONAL INCIDENT 



Haud multum abfuit quin interfi- 
ceretur 

Horace 



From Captain SpeedY; Queen's Commissionery 

Larut, to H.E. Sir William Jervois, 

Governor of the Straits, 

TExtract :1 Larut, November gth, 1875. 

'* T N the second report, that of 7th instant, Sergeant 
-■- Din states that he was told by one Kulup 
Riau that Mr. Swettenham had been murdered by 
the Raja Lela at Pasir Salak on the 5th instant. I 
regret to state that I have every reason to believe 
that the report is but too true. My inspector, Din 
Mahomed, reached Kuala Kangsar (where I sent 
him with a party of men immediately on hearing of 
Mr. Birch's death, to warn and guard Mr. Swetten- 
^ham) at 2 p.m. on 4th instant, but, on his arrival, 

^48 



A PERSONAL TNCTDENT 

he found that Mr. Swettenham had unfortunately 
left, to return by the river a few hours previously ; 
■owing to the rapidity of the current, the boats 
should have reached Pasir Salak by the following 
day. I have sent detectives, both Chinese and 
Malay, to inquire into the matter, and to obtain, 
if possible, the remains of these unfortunate 
officers." 

I came across the above passage in a Blue Book, 
and I will explain why Captain Speedy had every 
reason to believe in the certainty of my death, and 
how it was that my remains were not to be collected 
just then. 

In the preceding sketch I mentioned that I left 
Bandar Bharu at noon on the 28th October with 
two boats, and intended, if it were possible, to 
meet Mr. Birch at Pasir Salak about the 3rd 
November. 

Besides the Malay boatmen, I had with me a very 
celebrated Selangor chief named Raja Mahmud, a 
man whose whole life had been passed in jungle 
warfare, and as he had come through it scathless he 
was regarded by Malays as invulnerable and re- 
spected accordingly. His latest exploit had been 
to take command of a body of Malays in an engage- 

249 



MALAY SKETCHES 

ment with Her Majesty's troops in a neighbouring 
State (Sungei Ujong), and as I had subsequently 
persuaded him to go to Singapore and give himself 
up to the Governor, he had attached himself to me 
and thoroughly enjoyed the possibility^ of trouble in 
Perak. 

Then I had a Manila boatman, one of the best 
coxswains on the river, a marvellous dancer of 
hornpipes and no less courageous than Raja Mahmud 
himself — more so he could hardly be. Lastly, 
Mahmud had a couple of men devoted to himself, 
and I had a Chinese servant. 

This being the wet season the river was high, 
poling difficult and progress slow, so that it was 
not till the morning of the 30th that we reached 
Blanja, the village of Sultan Ismail. As Ismail 
had been elected Sultan by a number of influential 
chiefs who declined to recognise either Jusuf or 
Abdullah (though both of them had far superior 
claims), and, as by the Pangkor Treaty and re- 
cognition of Abdullah, Ismail no doubt felt aggrieved, 
I did not expect a very friendly reception from him, 
nor did I suppose that I should be specially welcome 
as the bearer of proclamations which could not be 
otherwise than distasteful to him. It was only six 

weeks since I had been at Blanja with the Governor, 

250 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

and again a fortnight later I went there alone. Since 
then Ismail (or his advisers in his name) had 
summoned nearly all the principal people of the 
upper country, and a very large number of boats 
had arrived at Blanja, bringing all the chiefs and 
their retainers. Moreover, to increase his following 
the ex-Sultan had resorted to an expedient not un- 
known in England; certain high offices of State 
were vacant, and into these he inducted his own 
adherents— in fact, created peers, to give himself a 
majority in the Upper House. 

I waited half the day hoping to see Ismail, but 
failed. They said he was asleep and meant to 
remain asleep a long time. That is a common form 
of Malay diplomacy, and, as I could not afford to 
delay longer, I explained the proclamations, left a 
number of copies and said I would call on Ismail 
on my way back in a few days. As a piece ot 
news they told me a customs station had been 
established at Blanja, and everyone who passed 
would be taxed, white men or Malays. I said I 
should be glad to see the collector, and he was in- 
troduced, but seemed embarrassed, and assured me 
he was only carrying out his master's orders, so I 
continued my journey. If any conclusion could be 
drawn from the conversation and manner of the 

251 



MALAY SKETCHES 

Blanja people, disturbances (war, they called it) were 
Imminent. 

The next day I was at the Raja Muda's village, 
and had a long talk with him. He also was for 
war, but did not think the Malays would begin it. 
He said no good would be done in the country, till 
^* the malcontents " had been taught a lesson. Un- 
fortunately, as far as could be seen, all the chiefs 
with very few exceptions, were in that category. 
The people hardly count, they are passive and 
recognise that they live to obey their leaders. 

That night I reached Kuala Kangsar, and the 
then important personage of the place, an old lady 
who lived on the hill where now the Residency 
stands, informed me that she had been living in 
daily fear of attack by the people of a neighbouring 
village called Kota Lama. The shops in Kuala 
Kangsar were all closed, and everyone was waiting 
for the bursting of the storm. 

The latest excitement here was that a notoriously 
bad character named Raja Alang, living in a house 
by the path which led from Kuala Kangsar to the 
neighbouring district of Larut, saw a foreign Malay 
(a man of Patani) walking past with his wife and 
two children. When the man got opposite Raja 
Alang's house he raised his trousers to keep them 

252 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

out of the mud, and as Raja Alang considered this 
disrespectful to him, he called to the man and told 
him he must pay a fine of a hundred dollars. The 
man was of course unable to comply with this mon- 
strous demand, so the Raja took him, his wife and 
children, into the house, and said he would keep 
them there till the money was paid. After a couple 
of days, during which they were given no food, 
Raja Alang said he would sell the woman and chil- 
dren to raise the amount of the fine. Just at dawn 
on the following morning the Patani man got up, 
took from a Malay lying near him a kris, and with 
it stabbed the owner to death. Then he struck out 
wildly, killing another man, a woman, his own two 
children, and a child of Raja Alang, while he 
w^ounded his own wife. Raja Alang hastily left the 
house, hurting himself considerably, for he forgot 
the steps in the hurry of his exit. The murderer 
went next door and killed two more women and 
then escaped. Altogether he killed nine people and 
wounded three. It is a detail, I mention it only as 
showing the state of society, and because this inci« 
dent, at the time of my arrival, was, with rumours 
of war, dividing the interests of the people of Kuala 
Kangsar. 

On the 1st November I read and posted the pro- 
253 



MALAY SKETCHES 

clamations in Kuala Kangsar, and on the following 
day I went to see the Raja Bendahara, the third 
highest officer in the State. He lived across the 
river, and to him and a large crowd of his followers 
I read the proclamation, and gave the Bendahara 
some copies, which I asked him to have posted. 

Amongst the crowd was Raja Alang, who gave 
me his version of the dmokf and denied that he had 
ill-treated the Patani man. I see from the journal 
I kept in those days that I expressed my surprise 
that such things were not of daily occurrence, look- 
ing to the infamous way in which the people were 
treated by the Rajas, to which he replied that he had 
done wrong but was now taubat (a reformed cha- 
racter), that he wished to go to Mecca (the desire 
of all Malays who want to wipe out a bad record 
and rehabilitate themselves with society), and would 
be obliged if I would lend him a thousand dollars 
for the purpose ! 

On the 3rd November I distributed the proclama- 
tions in villages between Kuala Kangsar and Larut, 
and in the afternoon went with Raja Mahmud and 
one boat up river to Kota Lama. This village had 
then, as indeed it has still, the unenviable reputa- 
tion of being the most impossible place in Perak. 

It was a very large village, and the people in it 

254 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

prided themselves on their independence ; their 
neighbours called it impudence. A few months 
before Mr. Birch had visited Kota Lama, but the 
people turned out with firearms, and said that if he 
landed they would shoot him. He had no means 
of forcing a landing then, nor of compelling an 
apology later, and, therefore, he had not since been 
to the place. 

I had been in Kota Lama a month before this ; 
I went to see a man who had been shot through 
the shoulder the night before by two men who had 
a grudge against him, and had settled it in a 
truly Irish fashion. They called at his house, and 
while engaging him in conversation and eating his 
strehy had measured the distance of his sleeping mat 
from the walls of the house. It was a wooden 
building, and, like all Malay houses, the floor was 
raised high above the ground. That night they 
had got underneath it, and, having carefully calcu- 
lated their host's position, they fired simultaneously 
and decamped. One bullet missed the victim's 
head by an inch or two, and the other went through 
the floor and the mat and penetrated his shoulder. 

I now went to see this man again and found him 
doing badly, and advised his relatives to send him 
to Kuala Kangsar. Then we walked about the 

255 



MALAY SKETCHES 

village^ talked to the people, and in the absence of 
the headman I sent for his deputy. He came 
accompanied by four or five men all armed to the 
teeth, and we had a conversation wherein I think 
each side did its best to '' bluff" the other. It sa 
happened that we had come away without the pro- 
clamations, and I asked the headman to send to 
Kuala Kangsar, when I got back, and I would give 
the papers, that he might post them in Kota Lama. 

He said they only acknowledged one chief in 
Kota Lama, and he was the Raja Bendahara, and 
they would do nothing without his orders. I told 
them I would ask the Bendahara to give the 
necessary instructions, but inquired, '' What about 
the Sultan ? " To which they replied that he lived 
a long way off. They added, ^^We won't hinder 
you if you want to post the proclamations," but 
they did not say it in the politest fashion, and I 
told them the permission was unnecessary, as, if I 
had had the proclamations, I should have posted 
them. After this we had a long. and comparatively 
friendly talk, and it was nearly dark when I left 
them. 

Raja Mahmud stood by and said nothing, but 
they knew well enough who he was, and it is 
possible they might have acted differently had he 

256 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

not been there. On our way back he told me he 
was so amazed at the way the K6ta Lama men talked 
that he felt it wiser not to join in the conversation. 

Arrived at Kuala Kangsar, I found the Raja 
Muda Jusuf, and told him the result of my visit to 
Kota Lama. The Raja Muda's feelings towards the 
Kota Lama people were quite beyond expression, 
and they were very cordially reciprocated. 

The next morning, the 4th November, my work 
being done, I started down river at 8.30 a.m. 
I saw the Raja Muda bef<7i:e I left, and, again 
referring to my journal, \ find that he said : " No 
early or permanent settlement can be made without 
force, without making an example of some of the 
opposition. They are quiet now because you are 
here ; as soon as you go they will begin again. If 
you and Raja Mahmud will come, and we may use 
force, we can settle the matter in a fortnight." 

Little as he thought it, the time for force was at 
hand, for some was already past ; but if his pre- 
diction was right, his estimate of the means required 
to settle matters was over-sanguine. 

Stopping only for breakfast, my boats reached 
Blanja at 4 p.m. It was my intention to spend 
the night there, interview ex-Sultan Ismail, and 
continue my journey the next day. 

257 » 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The river at Blanja shoals rapidly towards the 
left bank, which is bordered by a long and wide 
strip of sand. The boats of those who call here 
are dragged as close in as possible, and while our 
men were engaged in doing this, and still some 
distance from the shore, a man called Haji Ali 
waded out to my boat and came on board. We 
had noticed the unusual number of people on the 
sands — not less than two or three hundred — and 
of boats alongside there were at least fifty, but we 
were hardly prepared for the news that awaited us. 
This Haji Ali, a tall, well-made man in the prime 
of life, was the genial person of evil reputation 
who, with Penglima Prang Semaun, had already 
distinguished himself by murdering one of the low- 
country chiefs. Notwithstanding this fact the Haji 
was always anxious to convey the impression that 
he was entirely friendly to me, but I distrusted him 
in common with the rest of the Blanja faction. 

Haji Ali seated himself in my boat and at once 
stated that Mr. Birch had gone to Pasir Salak, that 
there he and sixteen of his people had been mur- 
dered by the Maharaja Lela, who had then attacked 
and captured Bandar Bharu, killing all the Sikhs 
who had not saved themselves by flight. This 
news was so starthng that I could not believe it and 
258 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

said so, but the man assured me it was true, and 
added as a proof that the Maharaja Lela had sent 
Mr. Birch's own boat to Blanja to prove to Ismail 
the truth of his statement. Ismail, he said, had 
declined to receive the boat, telling the men who 
brought it that as the Maharaja Lela had killed 
Mr. Birch he had better keep his boat, and the 
messengers had accordingly left with it only two 
hours before our arrival. 

At Haji All's first words Raja Mahmud had 
caught up his kris^ and was now tightening his 
waist-belt and preparing for instant trouble. 

The Haji completed his information by con- 
siderately telling me that the Maharaja Lela and his 
people had staked the river right across at Pasir 
Salak, making it impassable for boats, that they 
knew I was returning, and were waiting for me, it 
being their belief that when once they had got rid 
of Mr. Birch and myself they would have no further 
interference from white men, as no one else knew 
the country. He concluded with an invitation from 
the ex- Sultan to go and see him on shore. 

I thanked him, and to get rid of him asked him 
to go back and say that I was coming. 

As soon as he had left the boat I held a hasty 
consultation with Raja Mahmud, who said it would 

259 



MALAY SKETCHES 

be madness to land at Blanja, where we should be 
like rats in a trap, and the only course was to go on at 
once and at all hazards before they had time to stop us. 

The idea of returning up-river was unpleasant and 
well nigh impossible, it was therefore discarded at 
once. 

All the men in both my boats had heard what 
Haji Ali said, and as some of them did not relish 
the prospect of trying to run the gauntlet, I decided 
to leave one boat and only take those who volun- 
teered to go. That question was very soon settled, 
every Perak man declined the journey ; my Manila 
boy took the rudder, three foreign Malays and 
Mahmud's two men formed the crew, and Mahmud 
and I were the passengers. There was my Chinese 
servant, he was not a man of war, and I thought he 
would prefer to remain where he was, for they all 
realised that the danger would be in staying with 
me. When I asked him, however, he smiled a not 
quite pleasant smile, and producing a long knife said 
he did not mean to move. It was quite clear that 
if it came to close quarters he would give a good 
account of himself. 

By this time we were ready to start, but just as 
the men were preparing to get the boat out into 
the stream, Haji Ali appeared again to take us on 

260 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

shore. I at once told him that if his story was 
true I could not stop at Blanja and must go on at 
once. How far he had been acting before was 
doubtful, but his surprise now was genuine enough. 
He said, '* It is impossible, the whole country down 
stream is in arms, you cannot pass, it is certain 
destruction." We told him that whatever it was 
we were going, and we pointed out to him that as 
the boat was moving into deep water he had not 
much time to get out if he wanted to return to 
the shore. He got out, and it was rather deep, but 
he stood there and shouted, " No doubt you think 
yourselves very fine fellows, but you will be killed 
all the same." 

He was still standing in the same place when 
we had gone some distance, and as we passed out- 
side the long line of boats the many people on 
shore realised that we had started again and were 
rapidly dropping down stream. It seemed to us 
that for them the unexpected had happened. 

The pleasure of thinking that we had at any rate 

cheated the Blanja people did not last us long, and 

believe every man in the boat — certainly I can 

speak for myself — believed that he had started on 

a journey of which sudden death was the inevitable 

bourne. 

261 



MALAY SKETCHES 

The Resident, we were told, had been murdered 
at Pasir Salak, and we could not well doubt the 
truth of that report. Then the people on both 
banks of the river for miles above and below Pasir 
Salak were on the watch for us ; the Residency 
was in the hands of the Maharaja Lela's people, 
the Sikhs killed or fugitives in the jungle ; worst of 
all, the river at Pasir Salak was staked from bank 
to bank, and if so no boat could pass that barrier. 

There were two points of minor moment — first, 
that the Residency boats were all painted white, we 
had one of them, and no native-owned boat in the 
country was white. That fact made us so conspi- 
cuous that we did not think it worth while to lower 
the Union Jack we carried at the stern. Secondly, 
up to that time no house-boat had ever made the 
journey from Blanja to Pasir Salak in anything like 
twelve hours, and we calculated, therefore, that we 
should reach the point of greatest danger in broad 
daylight, probably about 9 a.m. the next morning. 
Speed was our best chance, but here again we were 
handicapped by the fact that our men had been 
paddling since 8.30 a.m., they had had one meal, 
and now there was a night's work before them and 
no time to stop for cooking. 

If the conditions were as they had been stated, 
262 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

and as we believed them to be, nothing could save 
us, for with two rifles and a shot gun we could 
hardly hope to force the barrier unless aided by a 
miracle. 

The river was high, the current strong, and just 
at dusk we reached Bota. Fastened by an island 
opposite the village we saw Mr. Birch's own boat, 
the " Dragon," and with that all doubt as to his 
fate was at an end. Raja Mahmud suggested that 
we might stop and attack the people in charge. The 
idea was attractive and no doubt it would have been 
a surprise to them, but we decided that it was un- 
wise to waste the time and rouse the whole village. 
As we passed the boat we could see no one in or 
about it. 

The night was moonless but starlit, fine and clear 
enough for our purpose, dark enough to conceal us 
when we were in the middle of the stream. But 
the Perak is a river where the navigable channel 
wanders from side to side in a way that often 
baffles the most skilful pilot. The height of the 
water lessened our difficulties, but for all that we 
w^ere driven at times very close to the banks. 
Between 9 and 10 p.m. a thick white mist came 
down and enveloped the river in impenetrable fog. 
This was very confusing, for, while it lasted, it was 

263 



MALAY SKETCHES 

impossible to see half a boat's length in any direc* 
tion. The mist lifted and fell again at intervals all 
through the night, and so dense was it that at one 
time we lost our way, and at last discovered by a 
snag that we had got the boat completely round 
and were paddling up stream I 

That discovery gave us rather a bad shock, for 
we calculated that we had lost half an hour of pre- 
cious time, and if we could make such a mistake 
once it might occur again. It was possible because 
we dared not have any light, and only smoked with 
the utmost precaution. 

I was so tired that about half-past ten I could no 
longer keep awake, and several times the wearied 
boatmen dropped asleep over their paddles. We 
were not at all certain of our whereabouts, but 
some time after eleven o'clock we realised, by the 
succession of watch-fires on the banks and the 
numbers of men moving about, that we were getting 
into the zone of danger. It seemed to me, dozing 
and waking, that this lasted for a long time ; we 
were getting callous of the people on the bank when 
we found that no one seemed to observe us however 
close we were forced to go. 

I had told them to rouse me when we got near 

to Pasir Salak, for now, to our great surprise, it 

264 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

seemed evident that we should reach the place 
hours before dawn. About 1.30 a.m. Mahmud 
quietly woke me, and the boatmen nerved them- 
selves for the final effort. 

We knew that to get past Pasir Salak it was 
necessary to go right under one bank or the other, 
and the deepest water was on the left or Kampong 
Gajah side. That we decided to take. Huge fires 
were blazing on the bank, and round each were 
grouped a number of armed men — indeed, the whole 
place was apparently on the qui vive. As noise- 
lessly as possible, but none the less vigorously, the 
men plied their paddles, and we made for the deep* 
water under the bank. Just at this moment the 
thick white veil of mist came down over the river, 
and under its sheltering cover we glided swiftly 
down, the light of the blazing logs, close though 
they were, shining vaguely through the fog, while 
now and then a man's figure, of seemingly gigantic 
proportions, loomed out from the fire-lit haze. 

Every instant we expected to feel the shock of 
the boat against the barrier, and we had determined 
that when that happened we would push our boat 
along it till we found the usual opening closed by 
a floating log and guarded, as we supposed, by 
boats. In the darkness we meant to try and force 

265 



MALAY SKETCHES 

our way through or take one of the enemy's boats 
on the down-stream side of the stakes. 

We could hardly realise the truth when we 
found ourselves at the lower end of the village 
without having encountered an}?- obstruction. The 
barrier never existed in fact — only in the imagina- 
tion of Haji Ali, or, more probably, the Maharaja 
Lela had intended to make it, but the Malay habits 
of laziness and procrastination defeated his plan. 

Just as I was thinking a very sincere thanks- 
giving, the bow of the boat suddenly ran on the 
shore and stuck there fast. We were so close to 
the bank that this happened without the slightest 
warning. For an instant the steersman had given 
the rudder a wrong turn, and we were stranded. 
To my dismay, I saw on the high bank, exactly 
over us, a large fire with eight or ten men round it. 
I seized the shot-gun, Mahmud had a rifle, and we 
knelt with fingers on trigger covering two of the 
figures that were distinct enough in spite of the 
mist, for we were hardly ten feet distant from them. 

Two of our men with poles were making super- 
hunian efforts to push off the boat, when a man on 
the bank called out, " Whose boat is that ? " One 
of our men replied, " Haji Mat Yassin's," having 
seen his boat at Blanja. " Where are you from ? " 

266 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

was the next inquiry, and the reply was, ''Blanja." 
" Where are you for ? " and other questions fol- 
lowed, but by this time the bow of the boat was off 
and we were drifting stern-foremost out into the 
stream and the sheltering fog. As the distance 
widened and shouts came to stop, the answers 
returned were derisive and misleading, for every- 
one felt that the real danger was past and the life 
he had made up his mind to lose would not be 
required of him that night after all. 

It was true that we had yet to pass the Residency 
at Bandar Bharu, five miles lower down, and we 
had been told this was in the hands of the Maharaja 
Leia, but there at least there was no barrier, and 
we were confident that we had nothing more to 
fear. 

We passed Bandar Bharu quietly, we saw a light 
on each bank and a man on watch by the light, and 
we said to each other that it would be very easy to 
shoot the men as they placed themselves so con- 
veniently en evidence. 

Ten miles lower down the river, it being then 
only 3 A.M., we were suddenly hailed by a voice 
threatening death and other penalties if we did not 
immediately declare who we were. That was a 
very welcome challenge, for I recognised the voice, 

267 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and in a few seconds we were alongside a Selangor 
steam-launch. 

Only then we learnt that Bandar Bharu had not 
fallen into the hands of the enemy, and we had 
therefore come ten miles further than was necessary ; 
but we congratulated ourselves on the forbearance 
we had shown in not shooting the sentries, and 
later in the morning, when we got up to the 
Residency, suggested that if the Sikh felt lonesome 
in the night watches it would perhaps be wiser for 
him not to stand in the full blaze of a large lamp. 

The Maharaja Lela and his friends professed 

themselves both surprised and disappointed when 

they found I had arrived at Bandar Bharu, having 

passed Pasir Salak without their knowledge. I 

daresay, however, that some of them were not alto* 

gether sorry that they had been spared a meeting 

with Raja Mahmud, for he was reckoned a mighty 

man of valour. In my case he was also a wise 

counsellor, for subsequent disclosures proved that had 

I landed at Blanja the intention was to immediately 

attack and murder me, and when we so abruptly 

left that place the ingenuous Haji Ali and his friend 

the Penglima Prang Semaun with a number of their 

men were sent after us in fast boats on a mission 

similar to the one they had previously undertaken 

268 



A PERSONAL INCIDENT 

and successfully carried out. As we saw nothing 
of them I conclude they did not exert themselves to 
overtake us. 

During the subsequent military operations in 
Perak, Haji Ali fell into our hands, and, after some 
weeks spent on a British man-of-war, he became 
quite a reformed character. I occasionally see him 
now, but he seems depressed, and when I find him 
looking at me there is no anger in his face, only a 
great sorrow as of a man who is misunderstood by 
the world and who suffers without resentment. 

I don't know why, but this expression is a source 
of unfeigned amusement to the Malays who happen 
to see it. It is very unfeeling of them. 



269 



XXI 
NAKODAH ORLONG 

Two things greater than all thing* 

are, 
One is Love and the other War 

RuDYARD Kipling 

ON the day after my arrival at Bandar Bharu, 
Captain Innes, R.E., came from Penang 
accompanied by two officers and sixty men of the 
First Battalion of H.M. loth Regiment, together 
with the Superintendent of the Penang Police (Hon. 
H. Plunket) and twenty native constables armed 
with rifles. 

Captain Innes, an exceptionally able member of 
his distinguished corps, was then in civil employ as 
head of the Public Works Department in Penang. 
When the news of Mr. Birch's murder reached that 
place, the nearest British Settlement, Captain Innes 
was sent with a force to take charge of the 

Residency. 

370 



NAKODAR ORLONG 

It is not my intention to detail the subsequent 
events except in so far as is necessary for a right 
understanding of an incident connected with the 
death of a man called Nakodah Orlong, a Sumatran 
Malay. 

With the force at our disposal, which included 
Lieut. Abbott, R.N., his four bluejackets, and 
about fifty so-called Sikhs, it was determined to 
attack Pasir Salak before the Maharaja Lela had 
time to collect a large following. An immediate 
advance was also considered advisable to prevent 
the number of our enemies being increased by what 
might look like our indecision. With Easterns, to sit 
still and stockade your position is probably, under 
such circumstances, the worst course possible. 

We knew that the Maharaja Lela was throwing 
up works, not only in his village, but outside of it^ 
and to force them it was decided to take two 
howitzers and a rocket- tube. 

The distance from Bandar Bharu to Pasir Salak 
was five miles, every yard of it covered with 
vegetation of some sort, the only road a narrow 
path by the river-bank ; moreover, Pasir Salak was 
not on our side of the river. It was, therefore, 
settled that we should start at daylight the next 
morning, the 7th November, in boats, that we 

271 



MALAY SKETCHES 

should pole up stream two miles and walk the rest, 
the guns being served by the bluejackets from two 
boats that would be kept in line with the shore 
party. 

All that was wanted was a body of scouts to feel 
the way, and I undertook to find these. There 
were Raja Mahmud, his two followers, and the 
Manila boy already spoken of, but it was hard to 
say where any other trustworthy Malays could be 
got at such short notice. Late that evening, 
however, Nakodah Orlong, whom I knew well, came 
in, and when I asked him if he would join us he at 
once consented, and said he could bring fourteen of 
his own men with him. That made us twenty, and 
was enough for the purpose. 

We were up at 4.30 a.m. on the 7th, got all the 
men into boats, and made a start by 7.30 a.m., not 
without difficulty, however, for we were hard 
pressed for hands to do the poling. It was only 
after we had started that I learnt the intention of 
taking guns had been abandoned, a very unfor- 
tunate change of plan as it turned out. To attack, 
without guns, any work defended by Malays means 
a certain sacrifice of life, as we found to our cost, 
and took care that the mistake was never repeated. 
The carriage of guns and rockets through the jungle 

27a 



NAKODAH ORLONG 

means delay and hard work, but, whatever the 
trouble and delay, hardly any consideration will 
justify an attack without at least one gun. 

The river journey was accomplished without 
incident, a landing was effected, and the party 
moved off. The scouts were in front, followed at 
an interval by half the detachment . of the lOth, 
Captain Innes and the sailors with a rocket-tube 
came next, then the Sikhs and Penang Police under 
Mr. Plunket, and last of all the remainder of the 
1 0th Regiment. 

We began the march gaily enough, not expecting 
to meet with any resistance till near Pasir Salak. 
After walking a mile or so, always close by the 
river-bank, we came to a large field of Indian corn. 
The plants were eight or ten feet high, and so 
thick and close that it was impossible to see more 
than three or four yards in any direction ; the ground 
between the corn-stalks was planted with hill-padi, 
and that was a couple of feet in height. 

On entering this field we opened out to cover 
as large a front as possible, and, when half way 
through the corn, passed a gigantic fig-tree growing 
on the edge of the river bank. On my right was 
Nakodah Orlong, and to the right of him one of his 

men called Alang ; on my left was Raja Mahmud 

273 s 



MALAY SKETCHES 

the Manila boy, and the rest of the scouts. We 
had been walking fast, and of the rest of the force 
we could see and hear nothing. 

We were talking and laughing (being still a long 
way from Pasir Salak) when suddenly we came to 
the end of the cover, for the last few feet of the 
corn had been cut down. At this moment Nakodah 
Orlong said, '* There they are," and the words were 
hardly out of his mouth when we were greeted by 
a volley from the enemy concealed behind a stockade 
not a dozen yards in front of us. 

Nakodah Orlong fell without uttering another 
sound, and, the enemy maintaining a brisk fire, our 
position was so uncomfortable that my own inclina- 
tion was unhesitatingly to get out of the way. 
Probably my intention was apparent, for Raja 
Mahmud said, '^ Stand fast and shoot." I was 
obliged to him and followed his advice, but as the 
Manila boy and I were the only possessors of 
shooting-weapons, and the enemy were hidden 
behind a rampart of logs and banana-stems, while 
we had no shelter whatever, our continued exis- 
tence was due simply to their want of skill. 

The absurdity of the situation was apparent, and 

its unpleasantness was heightened by the opening 

of a brisk fusilade in our rear. That decided us 

274 



NAKODAH ORLONG 

and we stepped back under cover, and then moved 
to the sheltering trunk of the fig-tree. Arrived 
there we found that besides Nakodah Orlong (about 
whose fate there was no doubt, for he fell within a 
yard of me), Alang was the only one missing. He 
was the last man on the right, and, as no one had 
seen him, we concluded that he also had been killed. 
It was at once proposed that we should go back and 
secure the bodies, but our own people keeping up a 
merciless discharge in rear, and the enemy doing 
their best in front, we were between two fires, and 
thought it best to try and stop our friends at any 
rate from shooting us. 

We shouted, but that, of course, was no use, no 
one could either see or hear us, and it was some 
minutes before we were able to let Captain Innes 
know of our position. In that time we realised 
that even a large tree offers poor shelter from a cross 
fire. It did not, however, take us long to decide 
that the side towards the enemy was the safest. 

That was only the beginning of misunderstanding ; 
twice again during the day we were placed in the 
same uncomfortable position, and a man kneeling 
behind me was shot in the back of his thigh. Once 
also the Sikhs made a determined attack on the men 
with me as we were trying to outflank the Malays, 

275 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and in spite of our shouts only desisted when almost 
within touch of us. It is true, of course, that the 
cover was so dense they could not see us until the 
last moment. They were so dispirited by this waste 
of effort, that they incontinently left the place and 
went straight home in spite of all Plunket's attempts 
to stop them. That was in no sense his fault, for 
they were not his men, and he had never seen them 
before the previous evening. The Penang police 
had retired en masse at an even earlier hour, and 
explained afterwards, with much force, that it was 
not for this kind of work that they had engaged. 

The enemy's stockade was a long rampart im- 
penetrable to bullets ; it was faced by a deep and 
wide ditch cut at right angles to the river, with one 
end on the bank and the other \vl high jungle. The 
work was backed by a thick plantation of bananas, 
affording perfect cover, and those defending it were 
commanded by the Maharaja Lela in person, and his 
father-in-law Pandak Indut, foremost of Mr. Birch's 
murderers. 

I am not now concerned with the details of the 
attack, it is sufficient to say that it did not take long 
to prove how serious a mistake had been made in leav- 
ing the howitzers behind. The rockets, an old pattern, 

were ineffective, and as they all went over the top of 

276 



NAKODAH ORLONG 

the stockade were greeted by the jeers of the enemy. 
We were close enough to hear even what they said 
in the intervals between the firing. Experience is 
usually costly, and what we learnt on the 7th en- 
abled us, a week later, to carry this and a succession 
of other stockades without the loss of a man. 

About I P.M. (our force being then reduced to the 
officers, the men of the lOth, bluejackets, and Malay 
scouts) Captain Innes gave the order to charge the 
stockade. That was done, but without guns to clear 
the way it was a hopeless task. We could not get 
across the ditch in the face of an unseen, protected 
enemy, while we were entirely at their mercy. We 
had to retire with the loss of Captain Innes killed, 
both the officers of the 1 0th (Lieutenants Booth and 
Elliott) severely wounded, and other casualties. If 
men with weapons of precision and the knowledge 
to handle them had held the work, none of our 
party ought to have escaped. But with Malays you 
can take liberties ; their weapons take some time to 
load, but they are deadly enough at a few yards 
distance if the men who hold them would not fire at 
the tree-tops. The Malay's idea is to loose off his 
piece as often as he can, it makes a noise and that 
puts heart into the man who fires, fear into the enemy. 

Though we had gained nothing by rushing the 
277 



MALAY SKETCHES 

place, the enemy did not like that style of attack 
and retired, only we did not know it then. We were 
engaged in counting the cost, picking up the wounded 
and organising an orderly retreat, for it was late, we 
had some miles to go, and we expected the Malays 
would leave their shelter and come after us. Per- 
sonally I did not know Captain Innes had been 
killed, I was in the centre and he was on the extreme 
right. My party was hampered by having to carry 
a wounded man, and when we got back to the 
middle of the field where Abbott and Plunket were 
waiting, Innes and the others had already been 
taken away. We had no surgeon, no stretchers, 
and the return journey was one that is not pleasant 
to recall. 

We reached our boats at 3 p.m., and the Residency 
a quarter of an hour later. 

For some time I 'was very busy trying to attend 
to the wounded, but then my Malay friends asked 
me for a boat, as they said they must go and fetch 
Nakodah Orlong's body, and see what had become 
of Alang. A British soldier was also missing. I 
gave the boat and they started. 

About 8 P.M. they returned with Alang and the 

body of his chief ; they had met the lad swimming 

down the river with his master's body. 

278 



NAKODAH ORLONG 

When Nakodah Orlong fell, and the rest of us 
got away behind the great tree, this boy stayed by 
the dead man, and as he was right in the line of the 
thickest cross-fire, Alang pulled the body as close 
to the bank as he could, and there remained from 
morning till evening, making no sign, but simply 
declining to abandon the corpse. A man even 
came out from the stockade and attacked him with 
a krisy wounding him on the hand, but Alang beat 
him off. After the final charge, when our people 
passed close by him, it was he who saw the Malays 
retire, and he allowed us all to go away and leave 
him without giving any indication of his where- 
abouts. 

Then, the coast being clear, unable to carry the 
body so great a distance, he dragged it into the 
river and was swimming down stream with it when 
the boat met him. 

I went down to the boat to see Nakodah Orlong ; 
he looked just as I had seen him last, except that 
his hair and clothes were drenched with water and 
there was a great hole in the centre of his forehead, 
marking, no doubt, the track of an iron bullet from 
a swivel-gun. Of that, however, he could never 
have been conscious, nor yet of the devotion of the 
man whose life had been in extremest peril through- 

279 



MALAY SKETCHES 

out a long day to guard his chiefs dead body, with- 
out thought of gain or praise, only determined that 
none but loving hands should be laid upon the 
voiceless, pulseless clay he once called master. 

Given a glorious sunny day and a good cause, 
the idea of ending existence suddenly and painlessly 
in the pride of life and in face of the foe has its 
attractions, and robs the inevitable of its sting. 

But who can hope that after his death there will 
be one other being whose love is great enough to 
offer his own life a willing sacrifice to guard the 
thing that was to-day a friend and to-morrow will 
be corruption ? 



280 



XXII 
EVENING 

Phoebus loosens all his golden hair 
Right down the sky 

Eric Mackay 

THE tale of these little lives is told. If I have 
failed to bring you close to the Malay, so 
that you could see into his heart, understand some- 
thing of his life, and perhaps even sympathise with 
the motives that will lead him to acts of high 
courage and self-sacrifice, then the fault is mine. 

The glory of the Eastern morning, the freshness 
and the fragrance of the forest, the sultry heat of 
these plains and slopes of eternal green on which 
the moisture-charged clouds unceasingly pour fat- 
ness — these are the home of the Malay, the back- 
ground against which he stands. 

Come, we have done with it all ; let us leave the 
plain, seething in the heat of early afternoon, and 
ride up this mountain path, through all the wealth 

281 



MALAY SKETCHES 

and the magnificence of tropical jungle, and look 
down on the land for the last time. 

Our callous eyes — surfeited with years of gazing 
on brilliant colours, great stretches of sea and 
forest, huge trees, a bewildering luxury of foliage, 
beasts measured by the elephant and rhinoceros, 
birds by the argus pheasant and the peacock — are 
blind to the infinite beauty of our surroundings. 
This path, by which we slowly rise to cooler alti- 
tudes and a new flora, would excite in the stranger 
feelings of wonder and rapturous delight. 

The road itself is cut through soil of a deep 
shade of terra cotta^ the colour all the more vivid by 
reason of the hues of green by which it is environed. 
The sunlight strikes in rays of brilliant light across 
this path, falling on red soil, granite boulder and 
massive tree-trunk, intensifying colour and deepen- 
ing shadow. Here and there are seen glimpses of 
the plains below, the distant sea, the peaks and 
valleys of other hill ranges, and the ear constantly 
catches the delightful sound of falling water, the 
voices of numerous streams dashing down the 
steep mountain sides in cascades of sparkling 
foam. 

The path twists and winds, often by sharp zig- 
zags, up the face of the hill, across a narrow saddle 

282 



EVENING 

and then by an even steeper ascent, till at last we 
gain the summit of the mountain. 

Stand here. The limit of vision is wide ; you 
will scarce find a grander spectacle in this Peninsula. 
We are nearl}^ 5,ooo feet above the sea, and from 
north to south the eye travels over a distance not 
far short of two hundred miles. Eastward, those 
distant hills are fully a hundred miles away, and 
soon on the western horizon the sun will meet the 
sea in a blaze of glory, as though kindling at the 
touch of loving arms long waiting for his coming. 

That faint blue peak in the north, hazy and 
indistinct, is Gunong Jerai in Kedah, and the island 
to the westward, which smiles through a golden 
veil, is Penang. A grey streak of water shot with 
gleams of sunlight divides it from the mainland, and 
the forty miles of country thence to the foot of this 
hill, and far south again to those blue islets off the 
Binding coast, lie flat and fertile, a feast for the 
eyes. Vivid green patches mark thousands of acres 
of sugar-cane and rice-field, but the general effect is 
an unbroken expanse of dark jungle, mostly man- 
grove, for all this land from hill-base to sea-shore is 
of comparatively recent formation, the erosion from 
the hills carried down seawards and covered with a 
wealth of foliage ever renewed by the excessive 

283 



MALAY SKETCHES 

heat and excessive moisture of this forcing tropical 
climate. No rocks, no bare hills, no arid plains, 
everything covered with vegetation : new graves look 
old in a month, the buildings of a year, for all their 
seeming, might have stood for half a century. 

Only at our feet does the hand of man make any 
mark on the landscape. There, amid trees and 
gardens, nestle the red roofs of Taiping. You might 
cover the place with a tablecloth for all its many 
inhabitants, its long wide streets, open spaces, and 
public buildings. 

And those pools of water all around the town, 
what are those? 

They are abandoned tin-mines, alluvial workings 
from which the ore has been removed, and water 
mercifully covers, in part, this desolation of gaping 
holes and upturned sand. 

The shore, due west and distant some twenty 
miles from the foot of the range on which we stand, 
is deeply indented by three great bays. They are 
the mouths of three rivers, short, shallow and insig- 
nificant in themselves ; it is difficult to understand 
why they should make such an imposing entry on 
the sea. A mile or two inland from the coast the 
eye is caught by twenty little lakes, on which the 
sun loves to linger, burnishing them to gold when 

284 



EVENING 

the setting in which these jewels lie has turned to 
purple. They are fragments of estuaries, deep 
waveless lagoons winding through the mangroves, 
and showing to the distant spectator only broken 
reaches, glimpses of bay and headland. 

The shore-line is a ribbon of ghstening light, 
bordering the wide expanse of forest trees, whose 
roots stand deep in water when the tide is high. 
The mangrove cannot live beyond the reach of the 
brine from which it seems to draw the sap of life, 
and these mud flats, in their gradual accretion, are 
as yet scarcely above the level of the sea. 

Turning to the north-east, a deep valley Hes 
beneath us, the source of a long river, the Kurau. 
Miles and miles beyond rise range after range of 
lofty mountains, Biong and Inas and Bintang, 
running into the heart of the Peninsula. Further 
eastward is the country near the sources of the 
Perak River, and across the narrow valley, through 
which its upper waters dahce in a succession of 
rapids, may be discerned peaks of the mam range 
which look down on the China Sea. 

Now we are facing the south-east and the valley 
of the Perak River. The ridge on which we stand 
divides it from the Province of Larut, and surely 
there are few fairer sights in the East than this 

285 



MALAY SKETCHES 

same valley through which the river, plainly visible 
twenty miles away, winds in a silver streak. On 
the right stands Gunong Bubu, the isolated mass 
terminating in a needle-like point nearly 6000 feet 
high. The spurs of this mountain spread out in 
every direction, north to the Pass from Larut into 
the Perak Valley, east to the Perak River, and 
southwards nearly to the coast. In the south-east, 
across the Perak River, rise five or six ranges of 
hills of ever-increasing height. Over the first range 
can be seen the valley of the Kinta, with its man}^ 
fantastic limestone cliffs standing clearly out ; then 
follow Chabang, Korbu, and finally the mountains 
dividing Perak from Pahang. Those hills fading 
out of sight in the far-away south are near the 
borders of Perak and Selangor. 

As we turn our faces back to the setting sun, 
the great disc, now grown a deep crimson, is sink- 
ing through a bank of clouds into a sea of flame. 
The waters beyond the influence of the sun's light 
are a brilliant sapphire, a reflection of the sky above. 
There is only one long, low bank of cloud, and that 
is on the horizon. 

A moment later and the sun itself has gone, but 
from the spot where it disappeared is radiating a 
lurid glow which kindles the clouds into fire and 

286 



EVENING 

shoots rays of gold over Penang in the north and 
the Binding Islands in the south, seventy miles 
apart. This golden light spreads for a space up- 
ward through the bank of clouds, till, paling into a 
belt of grey that again deepens into blue, and ever 
gaining in intensity, it rises to the zenith and fills 
the empyrean. 

Meanwhile the darkness which seemed to be 
settling over the distant eastern ranges is gradually 
suffused with soft tints of rose doree, transfiguring 
peak after peak and clearly defining every ridge and 
valley. This aftermath of day, wherein the sun 
returns to kiss the hills with one last lingering 
caress, fills the whole atmosphere with a rosy 
effulgence, then fades reluctantly away. 'Twixt 
western sea and eastern hill lies that great sea- 
indented plain over which night settles slowly but 
surely, while still the sky and hills are vivid with 
colour. But even the plain assumes its night garb 
with no less grace and beauty. A faint mist has 
risen from swamp and river, and, spreading itself 
over the land, takes soft hues of opal and heliotrope 
deepening into purple, while only the pools and 
river-reaches shine out, like scraps of mirror steal- 
ing borrowed glory from the sky. 

Soon this light wanes ; purple turns to grey, the 
287 



MALAY SKETCHES 

colours fade from sky and sea, only the shore- line 
keeps its sheen. Then this too dies, and great 
white clouds, coming from out the mines and 
marshes -like a troop of giant spectres risen in th^r 
grave-clothes, stalk slowly round the foothills Of 
the mountain, through the Pass into the valley of 
the Perak River. 

Here, at this elevation, the night is not quite 
yet. 

Close around us still the jungle, but the trees are 
dwarfed, the boughs are covered with moss and 
lichen, orchids and ferns flourish in the forks, gor- 
geously blossomed creepers twine round the branches 
and hang from tree to tree. The air is full of the 
scent of the magnoHa, the moss-carpeted ground is 
gay with a myriad flowers, some brilliantly plumaged 
songless birds flit silently between the trees, and a 
great bat sails aimlessly across the waning light. 
The shrill scream of the cicada is but faintly heard 
far down the height, and night comes, like a closing 
hand grasping in resistless darkness all things 
visible. The only sound to break the silence is the 
fitful and plaintive croak of a wood-frog. 

If night treads closely on the heels of day, there 
is no need for regret. The darkness is but for a 
moment, and over the eastern peaks spreads a 

288 



EVENING 

silvery sheen, herald of that great orb of splendour 
which, rising rapidly, clears the mountain and sheds 
a flood of wonderful, indescribable, mellow radiance 
over forest, plain, and sea, softening what is crude, 
pointing with brilliance the most striking features, 
and casting into a fathomless shadow the dark 
valleys of the western slopes. There is nothing 
cold about this Eastern moon. Seen, half-risen, 
against the dark foliage of the mountain, it glitters 
like molten silver, dazzling the eyes, and as it soars 
serenely upward seems the very perfection of beauty, 
light, and purity. 

Strange that the delight and glory of mankind 
since ever the earth was peopled, the emblem of 
unattainable longing, should be only a gigantic 
cinder. 



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